By Steve Bargeton, political editor

WHITE SLAVE traders will be stripped of their ill-gotten gains under a crack down proposed by the Scottish Executive.

Judges are to be given new powers to confiscate the assets of “Mr Bigs” who profit from trafficking people for prostitution or the production of obscene or indecent material.

Yesterday MSPs on the Holyrood justice 1 committee backed the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 Amendment (Scotland) 2003 Order put forward by deputy justice minister Hugh Henry.

If approved by Parliament the move will allow courts to assume that all assets from the six previous years have been gained from criminal activity.

Unless criminals can prove otherwise, judges can then order confiscation of cash, houses, jewellery, cars and other assets deemed to be the result of a “criminal lifestyle.”

“Trafficking individuals for the purposes of prostitution or the production of obscene material is a crime,” said Mr Henry.

“It’s an exploitative crime. I believe it is on a par with those other crimes by which individuals seek systematically to make money out of criminal activity and the suffering of other people.”

The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 defines specific offences which are in themselves indicative of criminal lifestyle including drugs trafficking, directing terrorism, trafficking in people or arms, counterfeiting, pimping or running a brothel, blackmail or extortion.

“We want to hit the criminals where it hurts—in the pocket,” added the minister.