Police in Bradford South expected to confiscate £1 million from criminals’ ill-gotten gains within nine months last year – but managed to net less than one-third of that.

And their colleagues in the Airedale and North Bradford division did not do much better. With hopes of bringing in £325,000 between April and December 2009, they actually secured £135,153.73 Bradford South totalled £302,047.08 in the latest figures released as part of a quarterly performance report which will go before West Yorkshire Police Authority.

At the time the report was compiled there was more money on the way but still to go through the seizing process.

Neither the police or West Yorkshire Police Authority wanted to make a comment about the figures above until the report is discussed next Friday.

However, three months ago, Airedale and North Bradford police revealed £1.5 million in cash and assets had been taken from criminals locally in less than two years.

The figure was came after detectives in the division’s POCA (Proceeds of Crime Act) mounted a series of raids across Keighley making four arrests for fraud-related crime recovering a number of expensive vehicles, including a BMW X5 and a BMW M3.

The POCA team said they were determined to leave criminals empty-handed and the money seized will be used on projects to benefit the community.

The week of action back in December was part of a regional campaign called ‘Why should they?’ encouraging people to report those they suspect of benefiting from the proceeds of crime.

It also marked the first week of concerted action carried out by the POCA unit, which was the first dedicated team of its type in Airedale and North Bradford.