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Customs hopes to seize luxury home of criminal linked to Lawrence inquiry

Jason Bennetto,Crime Correspondent
Monday 02 December 2002 01:00 GMT

The criminal father of one of the main suspects in the Stephen Lawrence murder is to have his luxury home confiscated by Customs officers fighting a six-year battle to force him to pay back huge profits from drug trafficking.

Despite being ordered by the courts to pay £386,397 six years ago after being convicted of conspiracy to import cannabis and weapons offences, Clifford Norris, 44, has only paid about £70,000.

Mr Norris, whose son, David, 26, was one of the five youths suspected of being involved in the stabbing of the black teenager Stephen Law-rence, was freed in January 2001 after serving two thirds of a nine-and-a-half-year term.

Mr Norris and his wife, Theresa (Tracey), have argued their mock-Tudor house in Chislehurst, south-east London, should not be confiscated because it is jointly owned.

But Customs is now hopeful of forcing the couple to sell the property, partly because it has risen in value in the past 18 months from about £600,000 to £800,000. It will press the High Court at a forthcoming confiscation hearing to determine what proportion of the property is owned by Mr Norris. It is claiming about £315,000 plus interest.

In theory, he could have been ordered to serve an extra four years for failing to pay but a loophole meant the Prison Service was powerless to hold him once he had served two thirds of his sentence.

Customs has become frustrated by its inability to claw back the money from Mr Norris, despite a judge making a confiscation order at his conviction. The south-east London criminal has repeatedly taken legal action to block Customs. After failing to extract the £386,000 in cash from him, Customs won a High Court ruling three years ago to seize the criminal's home.

The inquiry into the botched investigation of the Stephen Lawrence murder heard allegations of Mr Norris's corrupt links with police officers.In his report, Sir William Macpher-son of Cluny wrote of "the evil influence of Clifford Norris".

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