Frozen out

It is, therefore, welcome that West Yorkshire Police's major new operation to seize the financial assets of convicted criminals will see the money recovered spent on community projects in this region.

The benefits are two-fold. It gives the police an even greater incentive to use their full powers to retrieve the 2m that a rogues' gallery of fraudsters, drug dealers and brothel-keepers have been ordered to repay the Exchequer after being issued with confiscation orders in the past year.

Furthermore, it also provides greater encouragement to the law-abiding public to provide the police with the information that they require to ensure that these serious criminals do not benefit from their ill-gotten gains.

This is particularly important. Recovering money from the criminal fraternity is a time-consuming and complex process. Last month, it was revealed that only a tiny fraction of the 174m criminals had been ordered to repay nationally in the last five years had actually been recovered.

If successful, this pioneering approach will benefit the whole community if it brings about the provision of new community facilities – or funding for groups like Halifax Wheelchair Tag Rugby League Club. The team's future has been secured for another year, thanks to money and property seized from the town's criminals.

As well as bringing the police closer to the residents whom they serve,

it is also showing thatthe provision of youth facilities – and other

projects – at a grassroots level is one of the most effective ways of preventing today's youngsters from becoming tomorrow's career criminals.