Hello,
I had some property seized in 2016. 

Now all the investigation and stuff is over the police still have the property and the officer has now sent me a letter asking me to sign so it can be destroyed. Back in 2016 the officer told me it would be returned back to me, with storage devices removed. But now I am told they don't have the manpower to check all things seized so it must be destroyed anyway, regardless if anything is on it or not, or how it was used or wasn't used. 

What happens if I don't sign? I have no intention of doing so and helping the police out here. I don't understand if I am not aloud it back why do I have to sign to say they can have it? Also not everything taken was mine so I cannot sign for other peoples thing surely?  

Any ideas on how to handle this matter.

Hi Ajones10

a good place to get information would be the unlock hub, 

https://hub.unlock.org.uk/knowledgebase/getting-property-back-police/

as your post does not mention in full if you were charged etc, or went to court etc there’s not much more information I could give you, 

I would say that in this instance you need to seek legal advice from a solicitor especially as you say some of the property does not belong to you.

hope this helps 

Hi
I am in agreement with Simon, especially if they say in writing the reason is because of a lack of manpower to check and they have had it 4 years.

My personal experience was when the Met Police retained my passport and my then solicitor tried to get it back. Some months afterwards and with no return,  I wrote to my sentencing Judge saying they would not return it - long story why he was involved. He actually wrote to the Met instructing them to return it, in fact as they did not I asked again and the Judge contacted them again. This time they said they had lost it.

Anyway the point of my story is that you could write to refuse permission and ask why it was not checked before given the time. You don't mention the result of your case but if convicted you could write to the sentencing Judge or another option to the Police Chief / force solicitor asking them. It may take some time to get a reply but could possibly save paying for a solicitor.

Keep the letter simple, polite factual and brief, stating when and by whom it was taken, along with any other communication made and finally providing a copy of the letter sent to you. 

fingers crossed for you.

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope is for tomorrow else what is left if you remove a mans hope.

Thanks for both replies guys. I was given a community order which has now finished. It was out the blue that I received a letter from the officer out the blue and he must have tracked me down as I moved over 100 miles away since my arrest.

Thanks again.

Hi ajones what was the offence and what property have they still got as if you read PACE in relation to property that’s taken even after a case has been completed, there are items that will not be given back like guns, knives etc, it your crime was computer based, then they will also destroy these items as well. Normally the police will as for a destruction order on day of sentence, I wonder the fact they have written to you this was forgotten about, I don’t know. But if your crime was computer related and the re is a risk that items of offence could be recovered from hard drives you will not get that property back.

as I said in my last post you are best off speaking to a solicitor 

stay safe and all the best 

You can get some items back providing they have been forensically tested and are free of any incriminating evidence, for example if they took a PC monitor and it can't store data or in my case an external hard drive which had been tested and eliminated from their investigation. You have to have a good reason though, i had intellectual property on it that wasn't backed up in any other form. Any other equipment that forms part of the investigation that is pertinent to your case past or present, you wont be able to get back, for example you can't ask them to start taking out individual components out of a PC like a graphics card or sound card as they make the machine that was used to commit the offense operable, ie: it can be proved that the machine was usable so therefore if it worked at the time of investigation it can be proved that it was able to be used.

So if anything you want back is a component in the computer it will be nigh on impossible to get back...anything else is lawfully your property.

If the police applied to the court for a destruction order and that was granted, they shouldn't need the owners permission to destroy it. If they are asking for permission from the owner, that suggests they don't have permission from the court to destroy. May be worth asking them for a copy of the destruction/forfeiture order first, to see what is says. It may specify certain things that were seized but not others.

I was in Scotland but I was convicted basically of online harassment and around 20 items (mostly electronic and some belonging to my family members were taken by the police for forensic examination)

I had about 10 TERABYTES of data that took them over 2 years to go through to prove I had sent the offending Facebook messages

After my sentencing I attempted to contact them (the police and prosecution) several times and was not getting anywhere as they were just blaming each other and breaking their own guidelines to return property within 3 months of the last day in court. Eventually I put in a written complaint to the central system of both public services expressing my concerns of personal data and how they had taken items irrelevant to the investigation, and items which did not belong to me. After the written complaint they eventually returned my property which by at this point they had for almost 3 years

So in your situation I would put a complaint about the police or CPS on their online complaints form, I would certainly not make it easy for them by signing for anything

Also if they have your electronic equipment and they allowed to just destroy your data? You could have all sorts on it such as irrepleacable family photos, financial details, passwords etc

Sadly that does not matter, if there is any suggestion that an item like a hard drive might contain illegal material they will not let you take the non illegal stuff, the whole drive or item will be destroyed.