Home of businessman to be seized by courts
BUSINESSMAN Arran Coghlan is to lose his home within 90 days after a court ruled it was bought with the proceeds of crime.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) has been granted a possession order against his £600,000 mansion in Alderley Edge.
But Mr Coghlan, 44, says the case against him is based on a ‘pack of lies’.
On granting the order, the Right Honourable Mr Hollington QC, at the High Court, told Mr Coghlan that he must hand over the property within 90 days.
In March 2012, following a civil recovery trial, a High Court judge ruled that Mr Coghlan’s home had been purchased through the proceeds of crime, namely drug trafficking in Stockport and money laundering over a significant period.
Mr Coghlan has appealed the decision through the courts over the past four years.
The businessman has no convictions for drug dealing, or violence, and was cleared of the murders of Chris Little, in 1996, and David Barnshaw, in 2002. He was also arrested over the death of Stephen Akinyemi in a violent struggle at his home in 2010 but charges were dropped.
Mr Coghlan launched a claim against the NCA and one of its investigating officers, insisting he had never dealt drugs and that the case against him was based on ‘misrepresentations’.
However, his complaints were struck out by a High Court official and later confirmed by a senior judge.
An NCA spokesman said: “The NCA does not give up and go away. If you are found to have property which is derived from illicit profits, the NCA will keep going until the court’s order is satisfied and it will take that property from you.”
Mr Coghlan said: “From the outset this has been a personal vendetta perpetuated by officers that have come from another enquiry team into the ranks of the NCA.
“On a more amusing note, the facts and figures mean that the NCA should have been careful what they wished for.
“I bought the house on a no-deposit, 100 per cent interest-only mortgage, which means that I haven’t paid one penny off the cost of that house. Should the NCA manage to sell the property to a third party their first obligation is to repay the mortgage.
“In my view the NCA vendetta should not impact the public purse. As a public spirited person I am prepared to save the day by putting a bid in myself for £1 above the mortgage value.”