Boxer Tony Booth faces £240k drug assets bill

“"Booth now has to explain the source and legitimacy of all the funds transferred into his accounts in the last six years"

See - if he can prove that the money isn't from drug dealing, he won't have to pay it back. ;-)”

“Oh no The shock,anger and despair at the authorities representing decent non dope dealing scum have not been fair! Tee Hee.”

“Punish the family and children of a criminal seems to be the new angle the CPS are taking, they should be ashamed.

Do the crime, take the time. Don't make children homeless or put into care in the process unless it can be avoided.”

“Localad, i certainly do not feel sorry for Booth and he certainly deserved what he got however, he was no more than a run around go-between between ppl who actually owned the drugs and who owned the counterfeit money, all of whom got far lesser sentences than him and who all got way scot free as far as proceeds of crime fines went.

Booth certainly is not the sharpest tool in the box and in fact got his boxing licence revoked after failing a brain scan, this after being knocked around the ring in over 160 professional fights. His offence was over a 7 month period, he has a wife a 2 teenage sons who are now going to lose the roof over theirs heads for something they knew nothing about all because Both was stupid and all because the proceeds of crime act is once again being misused so that he can be bankrupted for the rest of his life.

The poc act is intended to asset strip ppl of ill-gotten gains, not deliberately be misrepresented to financially cripple whole families like it is doing here. If anything on earth is likely to take ppl back to crime, making a family homeless, putting offenders into a lifetime of poverty and financial ruin and charging massive interest on overinflated fines, is the sure way to make them return to crime.

The interest alone on Booths fine which is set at 8% per annum, would work out at around £19,200 per annum which equates to around £369 per week alone which then accumulates even further as the interest is added to the original poc fine total. He will be on around £7 per week prison wages. Booth was only classed as the go between in the first place, not the financier, nor the drugs or counterfeit money owner.

Of course he deserved prison and of course he deserves his asstets stripping off him, but assets that are set realistically and that are fair bearing in mind he has been fined 240,000 times more than most than all of his co-accused. I am no sympathiser of drug dealers or ppl involved in crime. However, sometimes a more common sense approach must be used otherwise ppl like Booth will never be able to re-enter society and try earning an honest living.”

“The Proceeds of Crime Act is one of the harshest and most effective laws ever introduced.

Pay your bills chaps!”

“He's lucky we are not Malaysia. Otherwise he would enter a boxing ring where he would be on the end of a guaranteed KO. It's known as the hangman's trapdoor. Anyone who deals in misery and makes money from it richly deserves to go down said trapdoor. No future worries about making a living, then.”

“The others got a £1 POC- perhaps because they sang like canarys? Amazing how criminals fall over themselves to dob their mates in!”

“Anthony 1960, why feel sorry for drug dealing scum like Booth. Proceeds of crime recovery is just that, an attempt to recover the money he has made from drug dealing, causing misery to hundreds of lives. If he can prove his assetts, his house and taxi were gained by lawful means he has nothing to worry about, if on the other hand he and his family have enjoyed the high life on drug money, sod them, let this be a warning to others.
This is one of the best pieces of legislation brought out in years, squeeze Booth and all his ilk until the pips squeak.
If need be make him sell his cat and dog too to recover money too.”

“I couldn't care less if his life has been ruined.... think of all the other ruined lives his drug dealing has caused.... perhaps in some cased through death. If you think the CPS are asking for more than their fair share of his ill gotten gains then let him prove that his assets were not from the proceeds of crime. So what! if he's some middleman and the big cheese has got away with it.... you got caught.... end of.”

“Yet another case of Judges allowing the CPS and the Police to deliberately abuse the Proceeds Of Crime (POC) law which was and is supposed to be intended to asset strip criminals of any ill gotten gains they have earned or stashed away.

Booth was simply a middle man in this over a 12 month period and as a middleman he would have been paid chump change for his role. He is being targeted because his name makes headlines while most of the the people around him who actually owned the drugs and counterfeit money so, who will have earned far more than him, have got far lesser sentences and virtually no POC fine.

He is being massively penalised financially simply because he has worked all his life and through his work, has been paying a mortgage and had got a car to taxi in on a loan. These are classed as tangible assets to go for but that doesn't mean that the POC should deliberately inflate his criminal earnings which they undoubtedly have, to swallow up a lifetimes worth of blood sweat and tears which they are now doing.

Nobody on earth can condone what he did however, he has a wife and kids who are now to be made homeless because of his 12 months of illegal activity. Plus he and them all, are to be financially ruined for the rest of their lives because of his 12 months of madness.

had he not been a household name in hull, had he not worked all his life and paid a mortgage, he would have got a far lesser sentence and a one pound POC like his co-hoots got.”