FRAUDSTER’S £5m BILL IS CUT IN HALF
Dirty money crook Hughes has confiscation order slashed
JUDGES have almost halved the amount fraudster Barry Hughes is said to have raked in from crime – saving him £2.5million.
Hughes, 39, had been hit with a confiscation order earlier this year after a dirty money probe.
The ex-boxing promoter was told to hand over luxury items including four designer watches and a £5600 mobile phone.
Prosecutors said Hughes’s “benefit figure” from crime was just under £5.4million.
But the sum was yesterday slashed during an appeal hearing at the High Court in Glasgow.
Lord Carloway – sitting with Lord Turnbull and Menzies – lowered the amount to £2.9million after being told the Crown now had “no issue” with the lesser figure.
Hughes was jailed for 43 months in 2014 after admitting £1.3million in mortgage frauds.
But the sentence was later overturned and he was instead fined £45,000. Hughes then went on to face a proceeds of crime investigation into his financial affairs. But a possible 150-day hearing was prevented when he agreed in February to a £53,000 confiscation order. This involved him handing over a number of “realisable assets”. They included a £6000 Rolex Daytona Oyster watch, another similar Rolex valued at £6300 and two Cartier Santos watches costing more than £5000. Also listed was a Vertu Constellation mobile phone worth £5600. Hughes represented himself towards the end of the probe after previous lawyers said they were not able to take part in a lengthy hearing. Sheriff Paul Crozier had also refused to adjourn the case following delays.