Britain’s wealthiest criminals are managing to keep hold of the vast bulk of their fortunes even after they have been convicted and imprisoned, according to Home Office research seen by the Financial Times.

The report shows the amount of money seized from criminals is a small fraction of initial police assessments of how much they earned from illegal activities. In the year to 2007, only £55.6m ($90m) was recovered in 3,604 cases – even though the individuals concerned were first assessed to have made £1bn in total.