A bling-loving drug dealer sporting flashy watches worth more than £42,000 has been ordered to hand over some of his criminal gains to the state.
High-living Ian Maynard, 37, had two diamond-studded Rolex watches with a combined retail value of £40,000 in his home, a court heard.
He is serving time after receiving a 10-year sentence for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs in September 2013.
He was a leading player who plotted with others to flood Teesside’s streets with high-purity drugs brought from the north-west.
He helped organise for 83%-pure, importation-level cocaine to be shipped into the area for distribution.
He brazenly supplied drugs while on day release from Kirklevington Prison, as he served a nine-year sentence for supplying cocaine and amphetamine.
He also admitted conspiring to supply heroin, an enterprise smashed in a £75,000 drugs bust at a railway station.
He was back at Teesside Crown Court this week under the Proceeds of Crime Act, designed to strip criminals of illegally obtained assets.
Maynard, of Lambton Street, Normanby, Middlesbrough, made a total of £747,310 from crime, the court was told.
He was ordered to pay the amount he had available - £34,234 - in the next year.
This is the second time he has been given a confiscation order after a drug-dealing conviction.
The rest of his criminal “benefit” will hang over his head and the authorities can pursue him for more of the money if they learn he has assets in the future.
Most of the £34,000 will come from the auction of five watches found in his home when he was arrested in December 2012.
A diamond-studded men’s Rolex worth £23,000 new, £10,000 second hand was found in a folded sock in a bedroom drawer.
Judge Peter Bowers said: “Although it’s described as a man’s watch, it’s what I would describe as somewhat ornate and somewhat flashy.”
A ladies’ Rolex with diamonds in place of numbers - retail value of £17,000, second-hand almost £8,000 - was found in his wife’s underwear drawer.
The other watches were a £1,450 Tag Heuer and two Dreyfuss watches worth £675 and £449, found in bedroom and living room cabinets.
It was alleged the watches were the proceeds of drug trafficking or money laundering.
Maynard said the timepieces were not his, and called evidence to prove it in a two-day hearing.
He claimed four of the watches belonged to another man, who a judge said was “one of the worst witnesses I’ve ever seen, very unconvincing”.
“He was simply trying to protect his friend,” said Judge Bowers.
He said Maynard’s evidence was “vague and basically unreliable” and the evidence about the four watches in general was “wholly confusing, conflicted and unreliable”.
Maynard said the fifth watch, the ladies’ Rolex, was a 30th birthday present to his wife from her grandparents.
The grandfather gave evidence saying he bought a watch from a gypsy for £1,600, but he never mentioned the diamonds on its face.
After seeing and holding the Rolex in the case, the judge said that would have been “an absolute bargain, a steal”.
He said he was satisfied the grandfather did buy Maynard’s wife a watch, but not this one.
The judge ruled that all of the watches were Maynard’s, and part of his available assets.
The £34,000 order - which also includes £710 cash - is likely to be reduced as the watches are expected to fetch less than their retail value at auction.
Maynard is the last of his drugs ring to receive a confiscation order.
His co-conspirators were ordered to pay more than £55,000 between them last year.
The Cleveland Police organised crime unit investigated and arrested the gang, then the North-east Regional Asset Recovery Team (RART) looked into the proceeds of crime.
Detective Sergeant Thomas Maughan from the RART said: “Both units will continue to seek to rid criminals, particularly organised crime groups, of their ill-gotten gains.
“In this instance, the defendant owned five watches and tried to tell the courts that other people were the actual owners to evade any such orders being made against him.
“It shows that he was able to lead a lavish lifestyle whilst committing drug trafficking offences.”
No comments:
Post a Comment