Snatch and grab.

It took the police almost 20 years to nab John Palmer, nicknamed "Goldfinger", following his acquittal for masterminding the £26 million ($39 million) Brinks-Mat gold bullion robbery. Cases such as this have led the government to set up the Assets Recovery Agency this week to confiscate wealth it believes was ill-gotten. The police have hailed it as an important weapon against a group of around 150 super-criminals who they claim are, in effect, untouchable under current laws. The British Assets Recovery Agency is modelled closely on the success of the Irish Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB), set up in 1996. Seizing assets allegedly acquired through crime without requiring criminal standards of proof represents a big extension of state powers. Its target for recoveries over the next three years is a modest £60 million--which won't make much of a dent in the £18 billion of assets which the National Criminal Intelligence Service estimates have been acquired criminally.