Where are my shoes, asks jailed madam facing a £1m conf iscation
A BROTHEL keeper facing a £1million confiscation order has told a court she wants to know what happened to her collection of designer shoes and handbags.
Margaret Paterson, 63, was convicted of brothel-keeping, money laundering and living off the earnings of prostitution, with the offences aggravated by a connection with serious organised crime.
She was jailed for five years in 2013 and last year was ordered by the High Court to hand back £1million in profits.
Police raided her business and brothel premises in Grosvenor Street in Edinburgh’s West End in September 2011.
Officers found 100 boxes of unused shoes and 400 designer handbags in a pile 7ft high.
They also found evidence of a spending spree in some of the capital’s most exclusive shops and £204,000 in cash.
On Friday, Paterson, of Edinburgh, appeared at Stirling Sheriff Court to face allegations that she had not yet complied with the 2015 High Court Proceeds of Crime Act ruling to hand over £1million within six months.
Her solicitor, Stephen Dryden, agreed the order had not been satisfied and that the six-month period had lapsed – meaning she was liable to a further jail term – but said the delays were not her fault.
He said the £204,0000 seized in cash was still in the hands of police and bank accounts in his client’s name containing about £200,000 had been frozen so she was unable to access the money, or the interest it had earned, to hand it over.
He added that Paterson had been diagnosed with breast cancer while serving her sentence and underwent a mastectomy.
‘Since then she has undergone chemotherapy and radiotherapy which has had an impact on her ability to deal with her affairs,’ he said.
‘We have asked the Crown to furnish us with up-to-date precise bank account balances, including any interest that might have accrued.
‘Miss Paterson has not been able to access that information given the restraint that’s been in place.’ Speaking from the dock, Paterson said she wanted to know what had happened to the shoes and designer bags seized by police, which could also be sold.
She added: ‘There’s also a whole lot of my mother’s jewellery.’
Paterson told Sheriff Wyllie Robertson that her conviction was unfair. ‘The police watched me for eight weeks without seeing a single customer but because I have large amounts of money, I’m guilty,’ she said. ‘I had the cash because I’m a hoarder.’
Depute fiscal Ann Orr asked for the case to be continued for three months to allow the Crown to appoint an administrator to wind up Paterson’s affairs.
The administrator appointed will have powers to close her accounts and sell her houses.
The court was told these were ‘a number of properties’ in Edinburgh, including 10B Grosvenor Street, where her business was based.
Sheriff Robertson told Paterson: ‘I can’t revisit either the conviction or the confiscation order that has been made.’
He continued the case until September 21.
The sheriff asked why the case was being heard in Stirling Sheriff Court, rather than Edinburgh, and was told this was ‘not entirely clear’.
It is thought to relate to the fact that Paterson was still a prisoner in Stirling’s Cornton Vale prison when the Proceeds of Crime proceedings were started.
Outside court, Paterson insisted she ran a legal escort agency and said if the girls she employed went on to have sex with clients, that was their business, not hers.
She said: ‘As an escort agency, the girls are going out for companionship. The majority of the time, yes, there might be some sex.
‘I don’t know because I didn’t go out with the girls.
‘But an awful lot of these guys would actually pay to get their bums smacked and get treated like a child or a slave.’
She admitted she had been a big spender.
She said: ‘I spent £58,000 in Harvey Nichols over ten years and £11,000 in Louis Vuitton.
‘The only thing I like is designer handbags and shoes.
‘I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, and I don’t take drugs.
‘Now I’m wearing a top from a chain store.’