Almost £800,000 of criminals' ill-gotten gains will be used to fund community projects in Northern Ireland this year, the Justice Minister has announced.

The redirection of the assets was made possible after an agreement between David Ford and the Home Office in London.

Mr Ford outlined the benefits of the scheme as he watched a Cage Soccer match at Stormont - an innovative football project set to be supported by seized assets.

The mobile pitch can be transported to wherever it could be of use within a community and was developed by Strabane Community Safety Partnership (CSP).

Funding from the confiscation of criminal assets will enable Strabane CSP to develop Cage Soccer further and for the project to be rolled out to Antrim, Ballymoney, Cookstown, Derry, Omagh and Limavady.

"Organised criminals are in the business of making as much money as possible without sparing a thought for who they harm along the way," said Mr Ford.

"The recovery of criminal assets hits them where it hurts - in their pockets.

"Recovering criminal assets is an important focus of the Organised Crime Task Force's work and to reinvest those ill-gotten gains back into the community helps tackle crime and the fear of crime."

Mr Ford explained that prior to the devolution of justice powers the Home Office retained half of all criminal assets.

The minister said that money will now go to Northern Ireland.