by Nisha Chopra

nchopra@thekmgroup.co.uk

Nearly £20 million worth of cash and assets has been seized from criminals by Kent Police in just three years.

Items taken from offenders include a Range Rover, a BMW X5 – and even a digger!

Police also seized £1.4 million cash from an organised gang who were laundering the money in connection with drugs.

Det Insp Mark Fairhurst of the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate said: "Some criminals live in expensive houses, done up beautifully and kitted out with huge flat screen TVs and luxury carpets.

"Sometimes we'll go to a house which looks fairly normal from the outside but is like an Aladdin's cave inside."

Once the money and property has been taken from criminals, it is put into a government pot which is then split between police forces.

Kent Police get around a fifth of the value of confiscated assets and half of cash forfeitures. The force received £1.6 million in 2010/11, after property and assets were sold off at auction.

Det Insp Fairhurst said: "Not only does it take that money out of criminal circulation so it can't be put it back into guns and drugs, a percentage comes back to the Home Office and the police. We can then reinvest that in policing initiatives."

In 2008, Kent Police busted a drugs supply network and arrested a dealer living in the west of the county.

He was sentenced to a year and a half in jail and his Range Rover Sport, along with £14,500 worth of assets, were taken.

The luxury car now has the words 'crime can cost you more than your freedom' painted along one side.

"We want to show that we're after these people," said Det Insp Fairhurst. "They're not going to profit from their crimes and they won't be able to drive around in these expensive cars."

Once police have finished using the vehicle, it will be sold off. The money will be donated to charity.