TWO wealthy businessmen with links to Glasgow's underworld have been ordered to hand over assets worth more than £900,000 under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Russell Stirton and Alexander Anderson will have their family homes and other assets seized after a judge ruled they were obtained through unlawful conduct – including importing drugs, extortion and money laundering.
The two men, one of whom is connected to the notorious McGovern crime family, were taken to court in a civil action by Scottish ministers after a criminal case against them failed to materialise.
The case at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, the longest of its kind to be heard in Scotland, concluded yesterday after two years of legal wrangling, with Judge Lady Stacey issuing a recovery order under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) for assets worth £922,212.22.
In a written judgment, Lady Stacey said: "Having decided that the respondents obtained property including heritage and cash by means of unlawful conduct, I am bound by POCA to make a recovery order."
The judgment revealed that Stirton, 51, of Milngavie, Glasgow, and Anderson, 54, of Uddingston, South Lanarkshire, indirectly received payments from Allan Gibson – director and part-owner of taxi firm Spring Radio Cars – by extortion.
Lady Stacey stated: "I have come to the view that Mr Gibson was intimidated in 1996 or 1997 by his office being the subject of an attack by masked men, his family car being set on fire shortly after his wife and children had got out of it, by an attempt being made to run his wife off the road while she was driving and by silent phone calls made to his house."
However, she added there was no evidence Stirton or Anderson were personally involved in, or aware, of the attacks.
Mr Gibson later told police he had been subject to extortion but refused to sign a statement.
The court also heard that Stirton, the brother-in-law of murdered gangster Tony McGovern, was present when drugs and a handgun were imported from Calais to Dover in 1997.
He and Anderson were also both caught with a large sum of cash in a car on the M74 in 2000 in circumstances that indicated they were involved in "the supplying of controlled drugs or other contraband or the laundering of cash".
The pair also instructed the purchase of 15 cars for money-laundering purposes and then sold them to Spring Radio Cars for almost twice their value.
A third party negotiated the purchase of the Skodas and instructed Graham Henry, of St Andrews garage, to make the invoices out to the taxi firm.
The judgment said: "The price was £148,000 which was paid in a number of instalments in cash."
Lady Stacey added: "I have found that the purchase of Skodas for cash was money laundering, and that payment by Spring Radio Cars of a non-commercial interest in respect of them was achieved by intimidation of the directors of Spring Radio Cars."
The judge also found that houses bought by Stirton and his wife and a house bought by Anderson's partner were obtained by mortgage fraud.
The Scottish ministers will now appoint a trustee to oversee the recovery and sale of the businessmen's assets.
Chief Superintendent Wayne Mawson, of Strathclyde Police, said: "The Proceeds of Crime Act offers a valuable tool to law enforcement agencies to see that ill-gotten gains do not remain ill-gotten."
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