Mansion landlord’s £32k rent fight with drugs-case tycoon
Couple ran up eight months of house debt
A woman has been fighting a five-month legal battle to evict a tycoon with gangland links from her luxury home.
Diane Gaffney, 58, claimed she was owed £32,000 in unpaid rent from Mario Rea and his wife Laura on the £1.8million riverside property in Bothwell, Lanarkshire.
The couple have been living there for 15 months but racked up the debt over eight months.
Diane, who is separated from businessman husband James, won an order at Hamilton Sheriff Court last November to have the rent paid.
Sheriff off icers were given the power to enter her home, evict the Reas and take whatever steps necessary to recover the unpaid cash.
An eviction by East Kilbride-based firm John Campbell was due to take place at 11am last Monday.
However, it was called off after the Reas agreed to pay the money.
They could still be forced to leave the house next month unless they agree to buy the property at an agreed price, which was a condition of the lease.
Diane, of East Kilbride, is now believed to be living in Marbella and could not be contacted for comment. Her solicitor Steven Docherty, of Glasgow firm Wright, Johnston & Mackenzie, declined to comment, citing client confidentiality. Rea’s lawyer Paul Reid said the rent had been paid and at tributed any delays to Mr and Mrs Gaffney’s recent separation.
He added: “An arrangement was entered into between Mr and Mrs Rea and the Gaffneys concerning the subjects. That arrangement was compromised as a consequence of the separation of Mr and Mrs Gaffney.
“Litigation ensued. The matter was resolved and all liabilities due have been settled in full.” Diane paid £ 1.4million for the home in 2006.
Rea and his twin brother Carlo, 39, were at the centre of a Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency probe in 2008 and charged with drugs and money laundering offences.
But Crown Office prosecutors dropped the case in March 2012 due to insufficient evidence.
The brothers have also been linked to the £ 600million col lapse of hedge fund Heather Capital, run by Glasgow lawyer Greg King.
Last month, the Crown Office decided not to prosecute King or three other men for fraud, five years after receiving a report from police.
In 2013, Mario and Carlo were convicted of attacking Eddie Lyons Jr – a member of the Lyons crime clan – at a birthday party in 2011.
Both Reas were handed 18- month restriction of liberty orders at Airdrie Sheriff Court and given 200 hours’ community payback.
Mario, who is serving a seven-year ban from being a company director over unexplained money transfers, was also convicted of an assault on Lyons associate Liam Boyle at a Hamilton cinema.
In 2012, he was also given a threat to life warning by police after they receieved information that he was a potential target of a gang linked to the Real IRA.
The Bothwell house was previously rented by the late lap dancing tycoon Billy Peterkin and once owned by lottery millionaire John McGuinness, who bought it shortly after winning £10million in January 1996.