BY ERIC KING
A mother has been ordered to pay back more than half a million pounds for laundering her drug dealing son’s cash.
57 year old Catherine Blackburne, from Borehamwood, was heard to have benefited from around £508,092 at a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing at St Albans Crown Court on Friday.
A thorough investigation found that she had laundered all the money obtained from her son’s drug activities since 2012.
Police seized £72,450 in cash after searching of properties and also took a safety deposit box with additional funds being laundered through the purchase land and property in Borehamwood. She was given 3 months to repay the full amount or face a further 5 years in prison. Where she is expected to get the money is an issue for her to address. It seems rather on reasonable for the courts to expect her to find over half a million pounds unless they have knowledge that she has valuable assets she can sell to return the fraudulent cash. Otherwise, it might have been better for the court to lock her up for 5 years straight away than to give her a tough task that may return her to crime.
Many criminals address the issue of debt by committing further crimes in order to make up the debt. The drug world is known to operate in a similar way, with debtors normally pursuing other criminalities to clear the debt, risking the prospect of further brushes with the law in the process.The mother ordered to pay back over a million pounds has 3 months of hell awaiting her. Her drug dealing son may need some of his contacts to pull strings together for a result here. The predictable obstacle is that drug dealers to like to give money away, they like to store and spend money. It will be interesting to see whether this woman can truly find the money in just 3 months
Situations like this are created by the rebelling son, without which the mother would have not had any money to lauder to begin with. Many struggling mothers in her shoes would probably have done the same thing with the money, though not the responsible law abiding mother with a professional job. She was clearly intent in ensuring that the proceeds of her son’s money did not go to waste whilst he couldn’t reach it, but it has come back to bite her in the butt.Three months to pay back half a million pounds?Anyone who could guarantee making half a million pound in one year would deserve a round of applause, let alone three months. Good luck to her, because she will need it.