Traveller jailed for money laundering
A TRAVELLER who had £500,000 of laundered money go through his accounts has been jailed and now faces having all of the money confiscated.
Miles Connors, aged 36, was jailed for three years at Northampton Crown Court yesterday for allowing the “unexplained” proceeds of crime be laundered in his accounts.
He claimed to have earned the money installing UPVC fascias and by working as a landscape gardener but over five years, 500,000 passed through his two Nationwide accounts.
Judge Richard Bray said: “You don't earn 100,000 a year from landscape gardening. Not even the people on TV earn that.”
Connors, of Preston Court, Lumbertubs, had been due to stand trial yesterday but changed his pleas to admit three charges of possessing and transferring criminal property.
Christopher Donnellan, prosecuting, said Connors was being investigated by Thames Valley Police in January 2005 over distraction burglaries in Buckinghamshire.
It was when they called at his home in Lumbertubs that a building society book was spotted and seen to hold a substantial amount of money.
He was arrested and as well as all the money which had passed through his numerous accounts, two were found to hold 36,157 and 26,753 of “unexplained criminal proceeds”.
In September 2005, they raided his home as well as an address in Queen Eleanor Road, Far Cotton. Mr Donnellan said: “It was quite clear other names were on the post arriving at that address for Miles Connors and a proliferation of other names that are linked to this defendant and others.”
The court heard Connors was linked to a number of money laundering cases involving the travelling community including the purchase of land off Welford Road in Kingsthorpe and that of James McCann who was also jailed for three years for very similar money laundering instances.
Passing sentence, Judge Bray said: “Over a period of five years, approximately 500,000 passed through your two building society accounts.
“No tax was ever paid to the Inland Revenue.
“I see no reason why I should distinguish between you and James McCann.”
All of Connors’ assets have now been seized and he faces having all the proceeds of the crimes being confiscated or face more years in prison.
Qazi Aslam, defending, said the father-of-five had used the nine months he had spent on remand productively by learning to read and write.
rob.middleton@northantsnews.co.uk
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