Posted on Friday 20 October 2023
A money-launderer who set up bogus businesses to conceal the proceeds of organised crime has been jailed for 16 years.
Durham Crown Court heard that Christopher Taylor, from St Helen Auckland, used the accounts of friends and family to conceal hundreds of thousands of pounds and put more than £240,000 from fake businesses into his own bank account.
When police investigators began to close in and his accounts were frozen, the 49-year-old set up another account in his own name into which £34,600 in illegally-claimed benefits was paid.
Yesterday he was jailed for 16 years, including 10 years for conspiracy to supply drugs and six years for money laundering.
Also jailed were associates Todd Franey and Keith Johnstone who were stopped travelling north on the A1(M) in County Durham in November 2021 with 987g of cocaine hydrochloride in their car.
Both had been in regular contact with Taylor in the days prior to their arrest.
Johnstone, 41, from Bishop Auckland, was jailed for six years and three months while Franey, 34, of Hesleden, was jailed for five years and 10 months.
Detective sergeant Andrew Hartley, of Durham Constabulary’s economic crime unit, said: “This has been a long-running enquiry involving different teams from across Durham Constabulary.
“This outcome is a demonstration of our commitment to investigate not only organised criminals involved in the supply of controlled drugs and associated money laundering, but also those who support them and to target their assets”.
