A solicitor representing owners of safety deposit boxes raided by police has spoken out against what he says is excessive use of powers under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA).

Lawrence Kelly, of London solicitors Lawrence Stephens, claimed the authorities are using warrants to trawl for evidence of less serious crimes than those for which the powers were originally granted.

In June this year, the Metropolitan Police Economic and Specialist Crime Command used powers under the POCA 2002 to open nearly 7,000 safety deposit boxes on suspicion of money-laundering offences.

In the raid, the Met seized the contents of some 3,000 boxes, which they say included guns, ammunition and class A drugs.

The haul also included cash, which the Met said will be restored to box holders who prove ownership and provenance. Kelly said: ‘Proving ownership or provenance is not always straightforward.’

Steven Philippsohn, chairman of the Commercial Fraud Lawyers Association, said that he expected an application to challenge the use of these powers in such an instance to be made in the ‘not too distant future’.

The case raises questions of the balance between the right to privacy and the right to root out wrong-doing, he said. ‘In English law you must have reasonable cause to suspect wrong-doing. You can’t point at 7,000 boxes and say that there were reasonable grounds to say that a criminal or civil wrong was being committed.’

Kelly said that the operation could set a precedent for trawling expeditions.

The Met said of the 7,000 boxes opened, the contents of 1,604 had been restored to their owners with another 529 ready for restoration. ‘Approximately 1,400 are in various stages of investigation or have not been claimed.’ It is continuing with criminal investigations relating to the content of some boxes.