Police in West Yorkshire are taking on more than 20 financial investigators to make sure that criminals' ill-gotten gains get put back into the community.

The force's Economic Crime Unit (ECU), which is already leading the way nationally in seizing and confiscating villains' assets, is expanding its investigating team with the aim of cutting off criminals' 'earnings' before they get rich.

Police were given new powers by the 2002 Proceeds of Crime Act to obtain confiscation orders from the courts to seize assets such as cars and houses, bought with the proceeds of crime. In the last two years the force's ECU has secured confiscation orders for £8.8m with a team based in Wakefield.

Now West Yorkshire Police Authority is funding 22 new posts, which will see two financial investigators based in every division in the force, including Bradford South, Bradford North, Keighley and Pudsey-Weetwood.

Detective Chief Inspector David Cooper, head of the ECU, said the new Act had given police powers to "have a real go" at people who had benefited from crime.

"We are very, very pro-active, but have mainly been targeting the high profile drug dealer type offender.

"What we are seeking to do now is engage with people who benefit from crime at a lower level to stop them accruing their wealth; take their legs from under them before they can amass the substantial sums we are talking about.

"There will be two financial investigators in each division and they will be targeting drug dealers, people who commit robberies and those who receive stolen goods.

"Previously we were not engaging them until they had become very rich. Now we are hoping to do it much earlier."

Criminals who do not repay their profits after a confiscation order can be jailed and the debt remains. They usually have to sell their homes to pay it off.

Det Chief Insp Cooper said that money seized went to the Treasury, which paid a percentage of it back to the force.

One of the biggest confiscation orders secured by West Yorkshire Police was for nearly £1m against former Keighley Cougars chairman Carl Metcalfe, who was jailed for eight years for producing and selling fake ecstasy tablets, and his wife.