Judge orders Stokesley scrap dealer to empty bank account of over £77k to pay Proceeds of Crime bill

Joseph McElvaney, 21, ordered to pay £77,236 to the state after he made almost £150,000 from selling scrap metal without a licence

A scrap dealer will have to empty his bank account of more than £77,000 to pay a Proceeds of Crime bill.

Young businessman Joseph McElvaney, 21, ended up in the dock for money laundering after he sold scrap for almost £150,000 without a licence.

He was given a suspended prison sentence last November, when he still held more than £77,000 in a bank account.

Judge Peter Bowers warned him at the time: “I dare say you won’t see much of the £77,000 in the bank account again.”

This week, he was ordered to pay £77,236 to the state.

He was back in court under the Proceeds of Crime Act, legislation designed to strip criminals of ill-gotten gains.

Lawyers agreed he made £147,606 from crime at Teesside Crown Court yesterday.

The rest of this sum will hang over McElvaney’s head like a debt after the “available amount” of £77,000 is paid.

The authorities can pursue him for more if they learn he has come into money.

The defence asked for the money to be paid not to the state, but as compensation to an alleged creditor who was not a victim in the court case.

A businessman claimed McElvaney owed him more than £130,000 from a series of scrap metal transactions.

Defence barrister Joe Hingston said the businessman was an indirect victim who had suffered as a consequence of McElvaney’s crime and was legitimately owed money.

“He is an individual who can be awarded compensation,” added Mr Hingston.

Prosecutor Harry Hadfield said: “The Crown are absolutely against that. He was never a victim.”

He said the scrap metal dealer never provided paperwork to back up his claims.

Judge Bowers rejected the compensation claim.

He said a “vague statement” from the businessman in South Wales - described as a friend, colleague or acquaintance of McElvaney - was not enough to justify the compensation.

He added: “The evidence is extremely vague.

“In the absence of any definitive evidence of debt, I’m not prepared to make any payment to him.”

McElvaney had been the sole director of a registered company named J & M Commercials and Recycling Ltd.

The firm’s bank account received £205,000 in just over a month, the court heard in the sentencing hearing last year.

Another firm transferred £147,606 into the account in nine transactions where scrap was weighed in and sold.

Afterwards, McElvaney withdrew most of this money in large amounts of cash.

There was no suggestion the scrap was tainted or stolen.

But neither McElvaney, of Hebron Road, Stokesley, nor his firm were registered to trade in scrap metals under the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 1964.

This meant the proceeds from the business became “criminal property”, of which he admitted possession.

Judge Bowers told McElvaney the rules were there to be enforced because the scrap industry was open to abuse.

McElvaney was given a six-month prison sentence suspended for two years with 200 hours’ unpaid work.

He was previously given a community order for fraud by false representation in a case where an elderly woman was overcharged for work.