Drug money launderer avoids jail (From Gazette & Herald)

Drug money launderer avoids jail

10:19am Friday 21st September 2012 in News

A MEMBER of a drugs ring who used his daughter’s bank account as he laundered more than £45,000 from illegal deals in North Yorkshire has escaped an immediate prison sentence.

On 46 occasions over ten months, members of a drugs gang paid money through a Scarborough bank branch into Stuart Stanley’s account or that of his daughter.

Stanley then withdrew the money in Manchester, sometimes within minutes of the money being deposited. But the activities of four Mancunian drug criminals in Scarborough alerted police, and through them they tracked down Stanley and arrested him. Drug user Stanley, 48, of Brinston Walk, Manchester, had 77 convictions before he pleaded guilty to money laundering but has never received a prison sentence.

He pleaded guilty on the basis he did not receive any money for his actions, but was paid in drugs and the writing off of drug debts.

Recorder Paul Watson QC said Stanley was not as high in the drug supply chain as others and suspended a nine-month prison sentence for 12 months on condition Stanley did six months drug rehabilitation and nine months’ supervision.

Stanley had been under pressure from people in the drug trade to act as a money launderer and at some stage he became aware that he was laundering drug profits, the court heard.