Feared gangster Stephen Clarke today claimed cash he received from a Liverpool property developer was for providing security and not drugs money.
Security and scaffolding entrepreneur Clarke, 48, and his brother, former soldier Peter Clarke, 37, headed a drug smuggling network supplying cocaine and cannabis to Northern Ireland and Manchester.
The pair, who had access to a cache of weapons including guns, machetes and samurai swords, were jailed for a combined 26 and a half years in November 2013.
Now prosecutors are battling to seize the majority of a £2m fortune from the brothers, as well as from their wives Rachel Clarke and Maria Clarke.
Nick Johnson, QC, prosecuting, earlier told Preston Crown Court the family’s ill gotten gains were “squirrelled away in a murky web of hidden assets.”
Today Stephen Clarke gave evidence on £178,000 of cash he received between 2009 and 2012 from a developer, who is involved in large scale regeneration projects in Liverpool but cannot be named for legal reasons.
Earlier DC Duncan Watson had alleged that the developer was involved in money laundering and helped clean the profits for the brothers’s drugs trafficking network.
Under questioning from defence counsel Nigel Power, QC, Clarke claimed he was a close friend of the developer and they had gone to school together.
But Clarke claimed his friend was having a “bit of trouble” with development sites including at Pilch Lane in Huyton, which had been vandalised and set alight by “gangs of lads.”
He told the court: “If anything happened on any of any of his sites I would be getting on the phone to sort it out. I would speak to certain people who would know those people and ask them to leave it out.”
Mr Power asked about the money coming in from the developer, which was paid into Clarke’s account in monthly £4,000 instalments.
Clarke replied: “At the time he was doing very well for himself and he would give me money because I looked after him well.”
The court also heard the pair were joint 50% shareholders in scaffolding firm Pro Scaff Access, and that the business had received cash from the developer to finance its activities. Mr Power also questioned his client on other businesses including Premier Approved, which provided security guards to building sites.
The court heard detailed evidence about payments received by Premier, which would source work and sub-contract other firms to provide security guards,
The prosecution had alleged payments from some of the sub-contractors, which included firms run by Clarke’s personal friends Jay Tinker, Michael Oliver and Micheal Palombella, were covers for money laundering.
However Clarke told the court: “To suggest these companies were not doing the work is ridiculous.”
The court also heard that recordings made on a police listening device, which involved Clarke referring to debts owed by men called “Dave” and “Belly”, were in fact referring to business loans.
Clarke claimed he had lent a man called David Byron £100,000 for a property deal. However he claimed the recordings referring to Belly, an alleged Manchester-based drug dealer, were discussions of his brother Peter’s activities and “nothing to do” with him.
Mr Power also asked about a safety deposit box containing £140,000 belonging to Clarke’s sister Lynne Murphy.
Clarke told the court the box contained cash he had saved from his work in security during the 1990s, which was paid solely in cash until the introduction of new legislation governing door staff in the early 2000s.
He claimed he had not placed the money into a bank because he had not declared tax on it, and denied it was related to drugs.
When questioned on other firms he was involved with, including Stealth Security, CTL Scaffolding, Pro Scaff Access and C&L Scaffolding, he described the businesses as “100% legitimate.”
The complex Proceedings of Crime Act hearing is set to continue for several weeks.
Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/