£250,000 seized from ex-gang boss
Former crime chief ordered to pay back profits nine years after his conviction
COURTS: A former crime boss from Yorkshire has had more than £250,000 confiscated almost a decade after he was convicted of a series of robberies.
Dennis Slade has been ordered to pay back the profits of his crimes which were committed across the North over a three-year period.
A FORMER crime boss from Yorkshire has had more than £250,000 confiscated almost a decade after he was convicted of a series of robberies.
Dennis Slade has been ordered to pay back the profits of his crimes which were committed over a three-year period across the North of England.
One offence included the robbery of a Securitas van that netted Slade’s gang more than £1m. Slade, of Leeds, was released from custody earlier this year, nine years after being given a life sentence over the robberies and his involvement in a murder plot.
The murder conspiracy convictions were quashed in 2015 after the Court of Appeal ruled them to be unsafe and ordered a re-trial.
The re-trial collapsed when prosecutors took the decision to offer no evidence against Slade and two other men midway through the hearing.
The decision meant the minimum prison term Slade had to serve was dropped to 10 years.
Slade’s confiscation hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act has now finally been settled after years of delays.
Leeds Crown Court heard Slade benefited to the sum of £267,836 as a result of his offending.
The court heard 43-year-old Slade has assets available to repay the sum in full.
Judge Tom Bayliss QC ordered that Slade pay the amount within 28 days or face a custodial sentence of up to two years.
The judge described the confiscation order as “rather academic” as the sum has already been paid.
Slade’s two “loyal henchmen” – Richard Pearman and Michael
Baxter – also had their cases dealt with at the same time.
All three men – once described as “Premier League” criminals – were found guilty following highprofile trials in 2009 and 2010.
Pearman and Baxter have also been released from custody following the quashing of the murder conspiracy conviction.
The court heard both men benefited by £33,750.
Baxter’s available assets were said to be £2,820, which the judge ordered him to pay.
Pearman was said to have no assets available and was ordered to pay the nominal sum of £1. A confiscation order was also made in relation to Slade’s former partner, Maxine Valentine.
Valentine was jailed for 12 months in 2011 after admitting to living off the proceeds of Slade’s criminal conduct.
A court heard how Valentine “flaunted” her wealth on social websites, enjoying expensive holidays abroad and shopping in designer stores.
She owned a £3,250 mobile phone and was given a pop star’s Bentley Continental for one birthday, which later had her own number plate – 30 MV. Slade and Valentine also lived in a £1m house, in an exclusive area of north Leeds.
Valentine was sentenced at Teesside Crown Court after pleading guilty to acquiring, using or possessing property, the proceeds of criminal conduct, between April 28, 2005, and March 5, 2008.
Prosecutors said Valentine knew her extravagant lifestyle was funded “not through legitimately earned income but through the criminal activities of her husband”.
It was clear he did not “go out to work in the conventional sense”.
They lived in Spain, but returned in 2005, renting a house in Harrogate for between £1,650 and £2,200 a month. In 2006, they moved to Sandmoor Drive, Alwoodley, Leeds. The court heard the £1m house “was registered in the name of an associate of Dennis Slade but in truth belonged to Dennis Slade himself ”,