Nearly £2 million of ill-gotten gains were seized from villains in West Yorkshire last year as crimebusters set about wrecking their lives of luxury.

Mr Bigs of the underworld are having to get used to scrimping and saving when they are released from behind bars as the new Proceeds of Crime Act begins to bite.

The legislation, which came into force in December 2002, allows law enforcement agencies, like the police and Customs and Excise officers, to make civil seizures of cash suspected of being crime-related anywhere in the UK. Previously they only had powers to seize drugs-related cash, but now it relates to money made from any type of crime.

Nationally, more than £93m of criminal cash has been nabbed, £53m by Customs and the rest by police, since the Act was brought in.

In the Yorkshire region, Customs officers seized £1m in the last 12 months. A spokesman said they had worked with other local law enforcement agencies to take the cash out of crime. "The figures include detections made at Leeds-Bradford Airport and during Customs investigations throughout the region, for example during house, vehicle and business searches," he said.

But the figures were subject to further investigations and appeals where money could be returned.

West Yorkshire Police are among the best in the country for seizing criminals' assets. The force recouped more than £774,000 in cash, the third highest in the UK.

In Bradford, a team of financial investigation officers from the Economic Crime Unit have recovered almost £493,000 of criminals' cash since the new Act was established.

Just two months ago a judge at Bradford Crown Court ruled that two armed robbers had to pay back £30,000 each or face an extra year in jail. The pair had stolen £60,000 from banks and post offices.

Another judge told a benefit cheat he would have to repay money he had claimed from jobseekers allowance when he had £25,000 savings.

Detective Chief Inspector Steve Waite, of West Yorkshire Police, said: "We want to target not only those benefiting from drug-related offences, but offenders from all areas of criminal activity.

"We will seek to recover benefits through the courts. The debt will remain no matter what and criminals will have to pay this back to the community, whatever the personal cost.

"If the offenders do not pay they will serve a substantial default sentence and still owe the money in question."

A scheme piloted by Customs and police forces in London, called Oper-ation Payback, is being expanded across the country.

The law enforcement agencies shared intelligence and mounted joint operations, targeting road and rail routes and domestic flights to disrupt couriers and make life difficult for criminals.

A Customs and Excise spokesman said that if somebody was trying to leave the country with cash and they could not satisfactorily explain how they had obtained the money they had the powers to seize and detain the cash.

If they wanted to keep the cash for further investigations they had three days after the seizure to apply to magistrates.