Drugs garage woman spared jail after fraud
A MOTHER who allowed her garage to be converted into a cannabis factory secured a huge mortgage by telling lenders she earned £45,000 as a barmaid.
Jo-Ann Walker, 38, went along with the plan to transform part of her Salford home into a sophisticated drugs farm.
After she was rumbled, she told police she had no idea about the £15,000 crop of skunk, claiming a builder had secretly planted it.
Walker later admitted allowing the home to be used for drug production, but avoided jail in 2015.
The beautician, who now lives in Rochdale, was back in court this week on a fraud charge following a police probe into her finances.
Walker, a mum-of-three, avoided prison again after telling a judge she was pregnant with twins.
She got a suspended sentence after admitting fraud by false representation and was ordered to do 120 hours of unpaid work.
Detectives discovered Walker secured a £149,000 mortgage from Newcastle Building Society after fraudulently claiming she earned £2,740 a month working at a pub.
Manchester Crown Court heard Walker already owned three homes when she applied for the loan – in Walkden, Skelmanthorpe and Southport.
Prosecutor Laura Nash said Walker used a fraudulent template she bought online to apply for a mortgage on a £166,000 house in Manchester in January 2013.
She was said to have ‘exaggerated’ her salary to get the mortgage, claiming she was on £45,000-a-year as a barmaid.
Walker’s lawyer Nicholas Flanagan she had paid back the loan and that the loss to the building society was ‘insignificant.’
He said Walker had sold all four of her properties and that ‘all mortgage companies recouped their money from those sales.’
Walker was handed a six-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, in 2015 for producing cannabis when she was pregnant with her third child.
The drugs factory investigation began when neighbours called police after noticing a strong smell of marijuana plants coming from her garage while she was on holiday in the US.
Walker was found to have benefitted to the tune of £487,000 – and was ordered to pay back £113,000.