ASA scores a very palpable hit?
Some commenters here have questions about the provenance of organisations like the Assets Recovery Agency, set up under Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 with powers to seek recovery of the proceeds of unlawful activity through the High Court. In other words a civil action. It has been involved in a series of high profile cross border operations, but this case today is their first such successful outcome taking it the full distance, through court, and then court of appeal. It ended in an agreement to settle. In effect the defendent, based in Co Monaghan, has agreed that his Northern Irish assests (restrained by means of a Mareva injunction) were gained through criminal activity.
Tags: Policing
He was previously cleared of killing 29-year-old British soldier Cpl Gary Fenton who was knocked down by an oil tanker lorry at a checkpoint in south Armagh in 1998. The last British soldier to lose his life in Northern Ireland.
Mr Belton, then with an address at Newry, was shot three times in that incident by another soldier who saw his colleague trapped under the lorry. He escaped across the Border but gave himself up to the authorities two months later.
Supposedly also a friend of Thomas Murphy.
Just to add that stories like this do wonders for the morale of those who felt that a blind eye was turned for far too long.