Pubdate: Thu, 24 Feb 2005
Source: Western Mail (UK)
Copyright: Trinity Mirror Plc 2005
Contact: http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/letters/
Website: http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2598
Author: Kirsty Buchanan, Western Mail
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/af.htm (Asset Forfeiture)
Bookmark: 
http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)

UK PARTIES GET TOUGH

THE pre-election battleground today shifts to crime as the Conservatives 
unveil their plans for tougher drug sentencing and Labour reveals the 
AUKP120m fruits of its war on major gangs.

Conservative leader Michael Howard will back a Private Member's Bill by 
Tory Nigel Evans to toughen jail sentences for dealers of hard drugs. It is 
due to get a second reading in the Commons tomorrow and calls for a 
mandatory seven year sentence for Class A dealers on their third strike.

It also calls for mandatory jail time for anyone caught dealing Class A 
drugs to children and for a review of Labour's re-classification of cannabis.

The Bill has no chance of becoming law before the General Election but, 
like Newark MP Patrick Mercer's Private Member's legislation, dubbed the 
"burglar-bashing Bill", it secures a tough-on-crime image for the Tories.

Labour hopes to overshadow the event by detailing the AUKP120m in cash and 
assets seized from major criminals since the Proceeds of Crime Act came 
into force two years ago. In Wales about AUKP4m in has been confiscated.

Don Touhig, the Wales Office Minister with responsibility for anti-crime 
measures, said across Britain an average AUKP1m was being retrieved from 
criminals every week.

Mr Touhig said, "The figures we are talking about are immense - some AUKP4m 
confiscated in Wales to hit the financing of future criminal acts and, at 
the same time, increase the amount of money available for crime reduction 
initiatives."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom