Nicola Whittaker, 35, narrowly avoided jail after admitting leading a lavish life with gun-running ex-partner Paul Wilson.

Nicola Whittaker, 35, narrowly avoided jail after admitting leading a lavish life with gun-running ex-partner Paul Wilson.
But prosecutors believe she benefited from Wilson’s ill gotten gains to the tune of £426,030 – cash they claim was splashed on a posh house, jewellery and a boob job.
They want the money back from the mum-of-one who contested their Proceeds of Crime Act application at Liverpool crown court on Wednesday.
Most of the cash is tied up in the couple’s £250,000 home in Liverpool Road, Ainsdale – now worth up to £1m.
Prosecutors also want £82,000 spent on jewellery and £5,000 they claimed Whittaker spent on cosmetic surgery.
Whittaker, of Coronation Drive, Crosby, denied the jewels were ever hers and said her dad, Ronald Whittaker, paid for her surgery after she split from Wilson in 2006.
She said although Wilson initially bought her a boob job, she needed a second operation in 2008 because he hit her and split her implant.
Whittaker previously admitted money laundering and eight counts of concealing criminal property.
Her 12-month sentence was suspended for two years after Judge James Roberts accepted she had endured “extreme violence”.
She was given 300 hours unpaid work after the judge accepted she tried – but failed – to leave Wilson several times.
Prosecutors said the £30,000 deposit on the couple’s home and the £1,400 monthly mortgage payments from her bank account came from Wilson.

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Alan Wilson (pictured) was handed a confiscation order of £919,482 by Stafford Crown Court.

Stafford company director Alan Wilson (pictured) was handed a confiscation order of £919,482 by Stafford Crown Court. The 57-year-old, from Chapel-en-le Frith, in Derbyshire, was jailed for 44 months in January after admitting theft, false accounting and fraud offences.The director of a company which designed and rented portable refrigerated units, his fraud centred on falsifying rental agreement documents, misappropriation of company funds and disposal of equipment.Wilson’s criminality funded a luxury lifestyle in the UK and Spain which included the purchase of a villa in Marbella, currently on the market at 850,000 Euros, a 47ft yacht with a list price of £490,000, a luxury home in Derbyshire and Mercedes cars.
The court directed that £764,012 of the order should be used to pay creditors of the failed company to compensate the victims of the fraud.Detective Sergeant Nick Jones, who works in the force’s economic crime unit, said: “Over the last three years the force has obtained 281 confiscation orders with a total value of £9.8 million.
We’ve also obtained cash forfeiture orders amounting to £1.3 million.
“These significant figures reflect that we are taking every opportunity to hit criminals in the pocket. Wherever possible, assets that are recovered are used to ensure crime victims are compensated.“We continue to work with the Crown Prosecution Service and the courts to make sure offenders are stripped of their assets. This includes monitoring ‘old’ cases to identify if further assets are available for confiscation.” District Crown prosecutor Mark Forster, said: “Our continuing success in the field of asset recovery is testament to the dedication and hard work put in by both police officers and Crown Prosecution Service lawyers alike.“Those engaged in crime should be aware that, working in close partnership with the police and courts, the specialist prosecutors within Staffordshire Crown Prosecution Service will be proactive in employing the powers contained in the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 to ensure criminals do not benefit financially from any illegal activity.
“Monies and property acquired by those engaged in crime will be taken back and used to compensate the victims.
“Those convicted can expect to face more than the prospect of simply being punished for the offence itself. “

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James Walter Tomkins, 60, is hiding out on the Costa del Sol

Candy Dawson believes James Walter Tomkins, 60, is hiding out on the Costa del Sol after he allegedly slayed her son Rocky Dawson, 24, for no apparent reason in 2006.
Police have named Tomkins – also known as Jimbles – as one of the UK’s ‘Most Wanted’ criminals.But despite Crimestoppers insisting he has links to both Marbella and Fuengirola, as well as Benidorm, he has not yet been caught.Desperate mother Candy Dawson, from Essex, told of her determination to catch Tomkins.
“I have contacted you because I am desperate,” she said in an emotional interview.
“I cannot put my son to rest and I’m willing to do anything to catch this monster.
“As a mother I cannot let this person get away with what they have done to my family and his two children.”
Her son was shot in the back a number of times, in what police believe was a case of mistaken identity.Horrifically, his children watched as he was gunned down outside his mother’s house in Hornchurch, Essex.His mother explained: “My son had been visiting me and was putting his little boy, Rocky, into the back seat of his car when he was shot in the back.
“He came back into the house and said: ‘Mum I’ve been shot’, before collapsing.
“He died minutes later in my arms.”
A swift police investigation eventually led police to arrest of Christopher Pearman, 56, who was convicted of his murder in 2007.
However, his accomplice has never been found and police want to quiz Tomkins.
International director of the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), David Armond, said many criminals like Tomkins could be hiding in ex-pat communities.
He said: “Attention is the key to making sure they can’t escape justice to live a life in the sun.”
Tomkins has two scars one close to his left eye on his brow and another on the right side of his neck.Described as tall, medium to stocky build and sometimes wearing a close cut beard.
A 23,000 euro reward is available for any information regarding Tomkins whereabouts.
The fresh appeal follows Crimestoppers’ success in catching half of the criminals from their most recent appeal for criminals in Spain.Of the list issued six months ago, half of the ten most wanted have already been caught.The most recent capture was Jody Flynn, caught entering the UK from Spain.
Others, such as Stephen Henry Pitman, are also believed to be living on the Costa del Sol.Operation Captura has made 31 arrests since it began its series of ‘Most Wanted’ appeals in 2006.

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When her husband died, one British woman had to run down the street to the nearest translation service because she had no idea who to call.

Fortunately, for those Britons in Spain whose command of the language appears to stretch no further than hola or gracias and who are lost in Spanish bureaucracy, help is at hand: Spanish civil servants are to work at the British consulates in Malaga and Alicante to help expatriates to integrate with their neighbours.In a deal between Britain and Spain, the staff will offer advice on dealing with health services, registering with the local authorities and property problems.More than one million Britons are thought to live in Spain for at least part of the year. However, many of the thousands who headed there to retire in the sun never registered with local authorities or health services, preferring to pay taxes in Britain or rely on benefits paid back home.Because the pound has fallen against the euro and with Spain in a recession, many have found that the dream has soured. With a sparse command of Spanish and faced with trying to fathom their way through a labyrinthine bureaucracy, a rising number are struggling to cope. Expatriate aid agencies report that some have become dependent on handouts.Others bought holiday homes, putting their trust in estate agents or lawyers simply because they spoke some English. Only later did they discover that the dream homes were illegal and faced demolition.
Mary McKechnie, of the British Association of Marbella, said: “I lose patience with some people who can’t say more than gracias [thank you] and por favor [please] and don’t know how to do anything.”Karen O’Reilly, of Loughborough University, author of The British on the Costa del Sol, said: “The main point is that integration is linked to social exclusion. People who are not integrated can end up socially excluded.“I do not mean they have to learn the language and/or have Spanish friends, but they do need to understand the rules and regulations and be legal residents in order to claim rights and to have responsibilities.”
In an interview with The Times, Chris Bryant, the Europe Minister who visited Spain last weekend to meet British expatriates, said: “I would appeal to British people living in Spain to register with the authorities and with the health services.”

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Spanish authorities in the port at Valencia have seized 1,200 kilos of pure cocaine

Spanish authorities in the port at Valencia have seized 1,200 kilos of pure cocaine, hidden in the false floor of a container on a freighter whose last port of call was Dominican Republic, consigned to a company in Madrid.Sources close to the ongoing investigation said two people were arrested, one in Valencia and another in Barcelona, who apparently awaited the drug.They said the container with the drug, which had been placed aboard the Cyprus-registry ship "Nordsea," had arrived in Valencia on February 23, from the Dominican Republic.
A previous discovery of a cocaine shipment in containers sent trough’s Valencia’s port prompted a probe of boats which had weighed anchor in Dominican Republic

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Donald Southall ran the UK side of a smuggling network which brought in cigarettes from Eastern Europe, evading at least £1.7 million of tax.

Homes in Spain, a yacht, red E-type Jaguar and a classic Norton motorbike were all bought by Donald Southall from Sedgley who was making a mint out of his part in an international tobacco smuggling plot.He ran the UK side of a smuggling network which brought in cigarettes from Eastern Europe, evading at least £1.7 million of tax.
Customs officials believe that although they seized 11 million cigarettes, many more cigarettes would have gone into the UK black market.Gang member Robert Horton, aged 43, of Church Road, Norton Canes, controlled the European end of the operation from his base in Hungary, Northampton Crown Court heard yesterday.He would meet potential suppliers and arrange for the bulk transportation of the smuggled cigarettes by the lorry load. Southall, of Gospel End Road, Sedgley, operated the UK side of the criminal network and oversaw the arrival and distribution of the cigarettes.Horton’s partner Julie Henworth, aged 42, was said to be “at the heart” of the organised crime gang. She was said to have acted as an administrator and travel agent” by arranging and paying for flights for numerous covert meetings between Horton and Southall in Europe and beyond.Sentencing the defendants, Judge Ian Alexander said: “This was a highly professional operation. You (Southall and Horton) joined together for the mutual benefits you derived from tobacco smuggling.” Southall and Horton were sentenced to four years and eight months in prison after pleading guilty to charges of tobacco smuggling.
Henworth, of Church Road, Norton Canes, was jailed for two years after pleading guilty to charges of money laundering.Southall and Henworth were arrested in March 2007 following a series of dawn raids across the Midlands after a two-year operation.Cash, computers and paperwork including bank account details were seized from their home addresses. Horton was arrested in May 2008 when he surrendered to UK authorities.Adrian Farley, Assistant Director of Criminal Investigation for Customs, said today: “This was a large-scale international tobacco smuggling plot which took our investigations all over Europe.“With the support of law enforcement colleagues in Hungary, Portugal, Spain, Slovakia, Austria and France, we have broken up this gang and are now working to take away the proceeds of their crime.” The gang operated between 2005 and 2006.

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In Spain, Russian criminal groups control 90 percent of the drugs and illegal arms flows

In Spain, Russian criminal groups control 90 percent of the drugs and illegal arms flows and have been involved in the murder of Paddy Doyle, a leading Irish criminal who was operating there. His death and the ensuing trial led to the publication of numerous articles about Russian organized crime.

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