A police officer told a proceeds of crime hearing that he suspected a leading Liverpool property developer of being a ‘launderer of drugs’ money’.
Detective Constable Duncan Watson made the assertion on the third day of a proceeds of crime hearing into the criminal fortune of the Clarke family.
Feared brothers Stephen and Peter Clarke headed up a sprawling organised crime group, which stretched from Manchester to Northern Ireland.
The brothers were jailed for a combined 26 and-a-half-years in November 2013.
Prosecutors are now targeting the assets of Stephen and Peter, and their respective wives Rachel and Maria Clarke.
Today at Preston Crown court defence barrister Nigel Power QC asked DC Watson why he had chosen, on Tuesday, to link property developer Peter McInnes to heroin dealer Anthony Quigley.
He asked had he done so to persuade the court that Mr McInnes was someone who ‘launders drug money’.
DC Watson said: “I believe he possibly does, yes.”
Mr Power said ‘possibly’ and DC Watson said ‘yes’.
DC Watson said that he did not know where Mr McInnes’ money comes from.
Mr McInnes and his wife, who was also referred to in a the court hearing on Tuesday, have not been charged with any criminal offence.
It’s not known what involvement Liverpool City Council had in any of these schemes and it may not extend to anything beyond granting planning permission.
Mr Power put it to DC Watson that Mr McInnes was in fact regenerating large parts of Liverpool city centre .
He said that Mr McInnes appeared to have the full backing of Liverpool city council.
Mr Power said: “Liverpool city council think quite a lot him don’t they?’
Mr Power asked DC Watson why he had provided press cuttings of some of the projects Mr McInnes was associated with in Liverpool , such as Pall Mall and Islington.
DC Watson said he provided the cuttings because he did not know how someone such as Mr McInnes, ‘who had high court judgements against him, and was now short of £2m, could be taken on by a council’.
Mr Power asked DC Watson if he thought that Mr McInnes had ‘conned’ Liverpool city council in some way.
DC Watson said: “He fronts companies, runs them until accounts are due and then scraps them and then moves on.”
DC Watson said that Mr McInnes had never declared any income in this country. The court heard that he has a home in Dubai.
He pointed out that some of the figures mentioned in relation to Mr McInnes were wrong, and that many of the payments were from Mr McInnes and not property company Peckers Hill.
Mr Power also questioned Mr Watson about Fortis and Stealth, two security companies linked to the Clarkes.
He pointed out that many of the companies the firms dealt with, such as McDonalds, were highly reputable.
Mr Power said that in relation to a Northern Ireland cannabis operation, Stephen Clarke became involved only after the arrest of drugs’ courier Mark Higgins, and that Higgins reported to Peter Clarke, not Stephen.
The court also heard that Mr McInnes had attended Copy Lane police station voluntarily but chose to make no comment at the meeting.
DC Watson told Nick Johnson QC, prosecuting, that Mr McInnes had also requested a second ‘meeting’.
After liaising with his superiors, DC Watson agreed to meet Mr McInnes at the Tickled Trout near Preston.
DC Watson said that at the meeting Mr McInnes said that he had problems with some people in Merseyside and was a player in a ‘dangerous world.’
He had said that Stephen Clarke helped provide security at some sites in Liverpool, including a student development in the city centre. He said that he had known Mr Clarke for some time.
Mr Power offered a slightly less dramatic version of this meeting, when Mr McInnes made no reference to any ‘danger’.
(Proceeding)
Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/