Solicitor was ‘taken in’ by a gangster
A SOLICITOR ‘taken in’ by a gangster associate of Dale Cregan helped him launder more than £400,000 of his illgotten gains through property.
For nearly thirty years Neil Bolton enjoyed a respectable life and an unblemished professional record.
Now he has been jailed for nine months for helping Tameside gangster Billy Black build a property portfolio.
Bolton, 56, admitted seven counts of failing to comply with solicitors’ regulations and one count of failing to report suspicious activity.
Manchester Crown Court heard that while working for Harvey Roberts Solicitors in Reddish, Stockport, Bolton dealt with conveyancing transactions for William ‘Billy’ Black, who has since been jailed for 15 years for fraud, conspiracy to supply drugs and laundering criminal cash.
Black - the former boyfriend of Dale Cregan’s sister Stacey Cregan - was brought down by a police investigation into Tameside’s underworld after Dale Cregan killed father and son Mark and David Short in 2012.
In a raid on the home Black shared with Stacey Cregan in Droylsden, officers found £40,000 in cash, £100,000 worth of drugs and Rolex watches worth £100,000.
The drug dealer bought at least 28 properties using cash from his criminal enterprises. Black used Bolton to help him process fraudulent mortgages for about a year in late 2007 and 2008.
Prosecuting, Nick Clarke QC said it was important that Black had a ‘compliant’ solicitor who didn’t ask ‘too many embarrassing questions.’
More than £418,000 was paid into accounts managed by Bolton from Black and other criminal associates.
Bolton, who had worked as a solicitor since 1986, did not ask where the money was coming from for the properties, the court heard.
He admitted his dealings were ‘shoddy’ but said he didn’t know of Black’s criminality.
Defending, Alan Kent QC said: “He [Bolton] was taken in by a man that he trusted, that he thought was involved in property, that he thought was bringing in work and clients for his firm.”
Mr Kent said that Bolton did not make financial gains from the fraud, and said the tragic death of his wife close to the time of his offending could be an explanation for his behaviour.
Bolton, of College Road, Buxton, was arrested in December 2013 and sacked by the firm the following year.
The sentencing also heard Black has had his sentence increased to years, after failing to pay off the £999,999 Proceeds of Crime Act when sentenced.