Hughes wants watches and £5600 phone back
Fraudster wants to keep flashy goods confiscated after dirty money probe
CONVICTED fraudster Barry Hughes is appealing against a £53,000 order forcing him to surrender his cache of luxury watches and a phone worth £5600.
The shamed former boxing promoter was slapped with the confiscation order by a sheriff as part of a dirty money probe.
Hughes, 39, appeared at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh yesterday to contest the move, which he argues was unjust.
His lawyer, Gordon Jackson QC, and prosecutors agreed to make written submissions in the case, which will be heard in August in Glasgow by judge Lord Malcolm.
Hughes was ordered to pay up in February as a £6million proceeds of crime action against him was due to get under way.
Hughes, who was left representing himself when his legal team withdrew after an adjournment was refused, elected not to give evidence at Glasgow Sheriff Court.
The court had heard the “benefit figure” from Hughes’ crimes was £5,394,202 but sheriff Paul Crozier granted a confiscation order for £53,412 of realisable assets, to be handed over within six months.
Those assets included a £5600 Vertu mobile phone, two Rolex Daytona watches valued at £6170 and £6310, and two Cartier watches worth £2200 and £3250.
Father-of-five Hughes, who lives in the Glasgow area, had offered to repay £500,000 to bring the matter “to a complete end”.
The businessman was jailed in March 2014 for 43 months over mortgage frauds worth nearly £1.3million but his sentence was later overturned and he was fined £45,000.
Hughes did admit to money laundering charges.
He went bankrupt in December 2014 with a tax debt totalling £10million.
Following his fraud conviction, we revealed how Hughes carried £15,000 in dirty money in a Sugar Puffs cereal box as part of a money-laundering operation.
Hughes, who has convictions for carrying a knife and for assault, also bought a £148,000 fleet of Skoda cars on behalf of gangsters Russell Stirton and Alexander Anderson.