More than £140,000 has been seized from the estate of a murdered gangland figure under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Mark McCall, 37, was ambushed and shot dead at point-blank range in an execution-style killing as he walked with his girlfriend through a dark alley in November 2003.

McCall, himself a leading underworld figure, was known to have fallen out with other gangland members over drugs and money.

No one has ever been convicted of the murder, which occurred in the alley between Westdale Drive and Westdale Road, Pudsey, despite many appeals for information by police.

The vehicle used to carry out the attack, a red Volkswagen Golf which had been stolen two nights before the murder, was abandoned and set on fire by the killers.

Witnesses said two men had been seen in the vehicle at the time of McCall's murder.

Now, almost four years later, the Assets Recovery Agency has announced that McCall's widow Tracy has agreed to hand over £143,000 to the Assets Recovery Agency to prevent further civil action from the Agency.

The assets recouped breakdown as follows: l £62,270 from the proceeds of the sale of a property in Rodley, Leeds l £74,748 from the benefit paid by a life insurance policy in McCall's name l £6,014 from a bank account.

The case was referred to the Agency by West Yorkshire Police after their initial investigations suggested a lack of legitimate income to fund McCall's lifestyle.

ARA director Alan McQuillan is a former senior Northern Ireland police officer with extensive experience of tackling money laundering among paramilitary groups.

He said: "The Agency's primary concern is making sure crime does not pay. In this case we have acted against the estate of a violent, well-known local criminal involved in drug dealing.

"We have reached a settlement with McCall's widow whose attitude and forthright co-operation has resulted in the Agency's early recovery of these assets.

"Cases that are settled in this way are often in the interests of the respondent and their family, as well as in the public interest."

Days after her husband's murder Tracy McCall made a desperate plea to the figures in the criminal underworld to give police information about the killers.

Speaking in 2004, Detective Chief Inspector Dave Cooper said detectives were working on the assumption that it was a gangland execution, possibly involving some of McCall's former associates in the underworld.

McCall was a well-known criminal figure.

In 2000 he was charged with conspiring to murder Clifton Junior' Bryan, a Leeds gang member who had twice almost been killed by rival gangs.

In 1995 McCall was convicted, and sentenced to 42 months' imprisonment for grievous bodily harm with intent, two years for wounding and three years for making a false statement in order to obtain a false passport.