Latest news with #crimefamily
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Daily Mail
Notorious crime family member 'helped finance £20million tax fraud', court hears
A member of one of Britain's most notorious crime families has been accused of helping finance a £20million tax fraud. Tommy Adams, 67, became notorious for his role in controlling the Clerkenwell Syndicate alongside his brothers Terry, 70, and Patrick, 69. The gang operated through extortion, drug dealing and money laundering and was linked to at least 25 murders. It has now been revealed Tommy Adams was also allegedly involved in an international tax fraud by company directors and accountants. A trial at Southwark Crown Court heard there had been a meeting between white collar fraudsters at a hotel in Manchester in September 2013 - which HM Revenue & Customs investigators bugged. It was there that one of the fraudsters discussed having a four-hour conversation with Adams in London as other co-conspirators became increasingly nervous at upsetting the gangster. The trial heard Adams had allegedly been demanding £450,000 he was owed as part of the operation which made £20.8million in less than three years in total. Twenty ring members were convicted of money laundering or conspiracy to cheat the public revenue by inducing or facilitating the submission of false VAT returns between 2011 and 2014 in four trials that concluded on Monday last week. One fraud gang member - William Lindfield - was previously embroiled in a blackmail case featuring Paul Stretford, the agent for then-England footballer Wayne Rooney. Stretford and Rooney are pictured here together As part of a separate operation, Adams was convicted of money laundering in 2017 after undercover police set up listening devices in Andrews Restaurant in Holborn, central London. He was caught laundering nearly £250,000 from 'criminal activity' during which time he used runners to move cash from Manchester to London between 2012 and 2014. Adams was previously cleared of laundering some of the £26million of gold bullion stolen in the 1983 Brink's Mat raid - and he was not prosecuted over his alleged role. Financing for the £20million tax fraud operation in which Adams stands accused of being involved was provided by Warren Bartlett, 51, who invested £350,000. His company, Bartel Networks, was used to process £6.5million of the evaded VAT on £32million of orders. Bartlett, who lives in a £1.4million home registered in the name of his girlfriend in Ongar, Essex, recruited other businessmen to invest in the fraud, also using the discredited former police officer, Jerry Young, to produce a fake report for HMRC. Speaking at the trial, Judge Dafna Spiro said: 'The conspiracy was complex and highly sophisticated, involving numerous individuals, companies, strands and layers: some in plain sight and others hidden beneath a multitude of veils.' She explained Bartlett had been actively involved in recruiting others willing to invest up to $1million (£750,000), The Times reports. The judge added: 'The "investors" were effectively "priming the pump" to get the fraud running and to keep it turning over, and the returns on their investment would come from the stolen VAT.' Fraudsters used networks involving companies around the world including the UK, the US, the Czech Republic, Spain, Cyprus, Canada, Vietnam, Hong Kong and the Seychelles. They centred their operations around a company called Winnington Networks Ltd, based in Crewe, Cheshire. It submitted 18 VAT returns, in which more than £20million owed to HMRC was not paid. The fraud was carried out through dishonestly offsetting VAT paid on fake purchases of 'voice over internet protocol' technology against tax the company would otherwise have paid on electrical and metal dealing. Masterminds behind the operation were John Fenton, 66, and Neil Pursell, 60, the owners and directors of Winnington. Both have been jailed for nine years. The fraud was openly discussed at secret meetings in hotels where conspirators told of how they could just 'invent the numbers' to falsely offset their output VAT claims. One fraud gang member - William Lindfield - was previously embroiled in a blackmail case featuring Tommy Adams, Paul Stretford - the agent for then-England footballer Wayne Rooney - and Kenny Dalglish, the former Scotland and former Liverpool player and manager. Stretford attended a meeting with associates of the rival agent to discuss Rooney's contracts, Warrington crown court was told in 2005. Adams, who had recently finished a seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence for drug smuggling was present at meetings at the Novotel near Euston, central London, and Le Meridien Hotel at Heathrow Airport in November 2002. Lindfield has claimed Adams was invited by Dalglish, director of football operations at Stretford's Proactive Sports Management agency.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
‘Gangster Granny' sentenced to prison for operating $100 million drug ring
'Gangster Granny,' the 65-year-old leader of a U.K. crime family, and seven of her associates were sentenced to a combined 106 years in prison for dealing more than $100 million worth of cocaine across the country, officials announced Friday. Deborah Mason, who's also known as 'Queen Bee' and 'Gangsta Deb,' recruited her sister, her four children and others close to her family to work as couriers and distribute her product across London as well as Bradford, Leicester, Birmingham, Bristol and Cardiff, the Independent reported. Over a span about seven months in 2023, Mason's drug network peddled nearly a ton of cocaine with a street value of nearly $107 million. 'This was a sophisticated operation which was extremely profitable for those involved,' said Metropolitan Detective Constable Jack Kraushaar, who led the investigation. Mason used the profits to fund her lavish lifestyle, which included extravagant vacations and a collection of luxury high-end designer goods. According to the BBC, she at one point purchased a Gucci collar and leash worth more than $500, and a nine-carat gold engraved name tag for her Bengal cat, Ghost. Mason in April was found guilty of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs. A judge on Friday sentenced her to 20 years in prison. 'You recruited members of your own family — as a mother you should have been setting an example for your children and not corrupting them,' Judge Philip Shorrock said, per BBC News. Mason's associates, including her sister, three daughters and son, were meanwhile ordered to spend between 10 and 15 years behind bars.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
‘Gangster Granny' sentenced to prison for operating $100 million drug ring
'Gangster Granny,' the 65-year-old leader of a U.K. crime family, and seven of her associates were sentenced to a combined 106 years in prison for dealing more than $100 million worth of cocaine across the country, officials announced Friday. Deborah Mason, who's also known as 'Queen Bee' and 'Gangsta Deb,' recruited her sister, her four children and others close to her family to work as couriers and distribute her product across London as well as Bradford, Leicester, Birmingham, Bristol and Cardiff, the Independent reported. Over a span about seven months in 2023, Mason's drug network peddled nearly a ton of cocaine with a street value of nearly $107 million. 'This was a sophisticated operation which was extremely profitable for those involved,' said Metropolitan Detective Constable Jack Kraushaar, who led the investigation. Mason used the profits to fund her lavish lifestyle, which included extravagant vacations and a collection of luxury high-end designer goods. According to the BBC, she at one point purchased a Gucci collar and leash worth more than $500, and a nine-carat gold engraved name tag for her Bengal cat, Ghost. Mason in April was found guilty of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs. A judge on Friday sentenced her to 20 years in prison. 'You recruited members of your own family — as a mother you should have been setting an example for your children and not corrupting them,' Judge Philip Shorrock said, per BBC News. Mason's associates, including her sister, three daughters and son, were meanwhile ordered to spend between 10 and 15 years behind bars.
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Yahoo
Luchese crime family captain gets 21 months for $35 million offshore betting scheme
A Luchese crime family captain will spend 21 months behind bars for running a $1 million-a-year offshore betting website that pivoted to online casino games after the COVID pandemic canceled sporting events in 2020, a federal judge in Brooklyn ruled Wednesday. Anthony Villani, 60, of Pleasantville, ran a gambling operation called 'Rhino Sports' for decades, taking bets from 400 to 1,300 people a week, and netting at least $35 million in profits since the early 2000s. Villani's personal cut of the action amounted to some $15 million, prosecutors said. Villani moved the operation online in 2004 to dodge scrutiny after spending four months behind bars on gambling charges. But it all came crashing down after a federal indictment in 2022 which saw Villani and four others charged in the lucrative Luchese scheme. All five took plea deals in the case. Prosecutors were asking for more than three years behind bars, pointing out that Villani engaged in attempted extortion, when he threatened a bookmaker who stole $300,000 from the operation to try to get the money back. 'So just do the right thing. All right? I'm not going to repeat myself. I'm not going to ever say this again. We're just going to have a problem if I find out. All right? And I don't want to threaten you with my friends or anything … I'm just telling you there's no more talking about this from now until the day one of us dies. Me or you,' he told the bookie in one April 2020 conversation, according to court filings. In another conversation from October 2021, Villani said, 'Listen, get the f—ing money. I'm telling you right now, you don't get this money – f—ing run away.' Villani's lawyer, Henry Mazurek, asked Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Kiyo Matsumoto for a more lenient sentence describing Villani as a reformed man who has made a legitimate life for himself owning juice shops and who serves as the sole caregiver to his elderly mother and stepfather. 'You will never see Mr. Villani anywhere near this courthouse again,' Mazurek said. Villani, who pleaded guilty to racketeering, money laundering and illegal gambling, must also pay $4 million in forfeiture funds, Matsumoto ruled. 'Today's sentence holds Villani accountable for racketeering crimes committed on behalf of the Luchese organized crime family, while lining the enterprise's coffers and his own pockets with millions of dollars,' U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella said Wednesday. 'Illegal gambling and extortion may be commonplace for the Mafia, but a prison term is a bitter outcome for mobsters who show no regard for the law.'
