A NEW police crackdown aims to prove that crime does not pay by seizing the profits of drug dealers and returning the cash to the public purse.

Lancashire Constabulary is stepping up the use of confiscation powers after the government said forces across the country were not making the best use of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

The legislation allows the assets of a person convicted of a criminal offence to be confiscated, sold off and the funds put into the treasury coffers to pay for future crime fighting operations.

So far the powers have been used on major drug dealers, such as Mathew Glover, the brains behind £1.6million North West drugs gang 'The Firm', who was ordered to pay back £370,000 after being jailed for 25 years.

But now, Lancashire Constabulary is planning to target street-level dealers as well to recover smaller amounts of laundered cash.

The government ordered that forces launch crackdowns after discovering that less than one fifth of drugs trafficking convictions resulted in a confiscation order.

An improvement plan for Lancashire has been drawn up by senior officers and was presented to the county's Police Authority last week.

Some of the methods outlined to confiscate more assets included:

training sniffer dogs to smell out cash and further training for staff about money laundering investigations

Creation of a specialist financial investigation course

Working more closely together with other agencies.

A police spokesman said: "The Constabulary has undertaken a significant number of cash seizures so far, and are national leaders in this respect. Only one of our cash seizure investigations has been through the courts so far and it is intended to exploit the media and community opportunities as other cases are finalised to show that crime does not pay."

Glover's home, Hurstwood View, in Foxstones Lane, Cliviger, was put up for sale, along with another of his properties in Keighley. Cash was also taken from his bank account and by the stripping of his pension plan.