The B.C. government has earned more than $15 million from the assets of gangsters and criminals since the B.C. Civil Forfeiture Office opened five years ago.

And few of those whose houses, vehicles and cash are targeted for seizure ever challenge the forfeiture demands in court, Rob Kroeker, the office’s executive director, said Tuesday.

“We have done more than 500 files to date. We have only run one trial in all of that time and we haven’t got a decision on that. But we have brought in more than $15 million and we haven’t lost an application yet,” Kroeker said.

Kroeker said his office is still awaiting a B.C. Supreme Court ruling in the one case that has gone to trial, involving three adjoining properties in the 5000-block of Boundary Road owned by Sarban Singh Rai.

Vancouver police found three marijuana-growing operations in the houses, but Rai claims in court documents that his charter rights were breached because of “irregularities in the process used to obtain the warrants to search.”

Vancouver police announced Tuesday that a house on West 53rd Avenue is now the most lucrative asset ever seized under the legislation.

Insp. Brad Desmarais, who heads the city’s gang crime unit, said investigators found a sophisticated marijuana-growing operation in the house in May 2009 “as part of an investigation into a network of grow-operations throughout the city.”

“This investigation is ongoing. As with many criminal enterprises of this nature, the true owner of the property was not the person on title,” Desmarais said.

“Investigators initially conducted a criminal investigation, however, it became apparent that criminal charges would be difficult to prove given the convoluted nature of the beneficial ownership. Fortunately, we knew there was another avenue available to us, and the matter was referred to the B.C. Civil Forfeiture Office for their review.”

Until it was sold last fall for more than $1.3 million, the house was owned by Yan Siang Yu, who listed her occupation as housewife on land title documents.

Desmarais said the number of grow-operations uncovered in Vancouver has declined from between 300-400 five years ago to just 50 last year.

And most of that decline came after B.C.’s civil forfeiture law came into effect in April 2006.

“There is a clear relationship between removing assets from bad guys and a reduction in certain types of crime. Our message is clear: If you commit a crime in Vancouver and that crime has anything to do with your car, boat or any other asset, we will take it,” Desmarais said.

Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu said civil forfeiture has become an effective tool for law enforcement.

“Organized crime in Vancouver is extensive, often sophisticated, and constantly adapting to avoid arrest and capture. As a police department and a society, we have to explore every possible method and deterrent to rid our community of this threat to public safety,” Chu said. “Ideally, we want to arrest the operators and put them in jail. However, in the vast majority of cases, the evidence gathered will not support a criminal charge. But what it does support is a very effective method to deprive the criminals of their profits and some of their assets.”