While idly flicking through the pages on fleabay I happened upon an auction for a listing of places where the police, customs etc sell off their seized items. Figuring this to be a bit of a con I had a look on google, but the results also appear to be dodgy (why do I pay a subscription to go to auctions?)

Seeing as there's a few coppers on here, and I'm sure some have bought ex-police cars I'd like to settle this with people who know.

Do Police/customs and excise/bailiffs auction off their goods, and if so where? I'm sure I shouldn't have to pay for that information...

Can't help with seized goods auctions but our local nick has regular auctions of stolen push bikes and as we all know , at least those of us that read PPC the Post Office sells of customers goods, All supposedly legal with no come back on the buyer

Not sure whether the site you loooked at is genuine but they certainly do an auction of siezed goods. I used to recieve a list every month, you write in a silly bid on any items shown, then if you are the highest bidder you get it. I once got a Cannon SLR camera for 10p as no one else had bid for it. That particular site was through Customs and Excise at Dover. Barry

[Edited on 2/4/11 by LBMEFM]

I don't know any more. I do know that my force no longer auction off their found/recovered bikes though as they are now not allowed to be seen making a profit off items which aren't really theirs so they get given to a local youth group to cut up/repair/weld etc.

[Edited on 2/4/11 by mistergrumpy]

Sounds about right there, although I'd rather see the police profit from recovering stolen goods than "catching the planet murdering evil barstuds" that are people doing 33... sorry different rant!

I've found a few places, but I still think it's a little off that the auction site (according to the Guardian article) charges a subscription