Benefits Couple 'Banked Pounds 100k' ; Court Told of 'Bling' Lifestyle

Plymouth Evening Herald, The › May 19, 2010

Linked as:

Summary

A HUSBAND and wife from Barne Barton lived a "bling" lifestyle which saw Pounds 100,000 pass mysteriously through their bank accounts, a city court has been told.

Jason and Joanne Crocker, of Savage Road, yesterday appeared at Plymouth Crown Court in front of a jury having denied money laundering and drugs charges. Addressing the court, prosecuting barrister Jo Martin said their joint benefits claims, made up of income support, child tax credit and child benefit, amounted to about Pounds 10,000 a year. Neither had paid tax since 2003 to the present date, but somehow an "unexplained income" in the region of Pounds 100,000 had passed through their bank accounts in the last three years, said Miss Martin. The court was told how when police first arrested the couple at their rented accommodation in May last year, they owned four cars, including a Range Rover and a BMW, four flat-screen TVs, surround sound systems, a Rolex watch, an Xbox, a Nintendo Wii, a Sony PlayStation 3, laptops, DVD recorders and more than Pounds 3,000 in cash. A "fairly sophisticated" CCTV camera system was also set up monitoring the approach to the front door, which was fitted with a special "fortified lock". "Too much bling, give us a ring: that is the advertising slogan of the money laundering unit here," Miss Martin told the jury. "It is a short and snappy way of stating if someone's expenditure outstrips the money they're earning legitimately. What the Crown would say is that if your expenditure outstrips your income, then something dodgy is probably going on. "These two defendants fall squarely within this category -- a husband and wife whose only legitimate income comes from benefits.

See the full content of this document

Extract

Benefits Couple 'Banked Pounds 100k' ; Court Told of 'Bling' Lifestyle

"And yet at the time of their arrest in 2009, they owned four cars, a vast array of TVs and surround sound ...

See the full content of this document