Wakefield man to payback £2.7m following car clocking scam
In May 2008, Wakefield car dealer and prolific car-clocker Adrian Hemingway was sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment in connection with car clocking offences.
Hemingway had been selling clocked vehicles to customers for many years from the various sites that he operated in the Wakefield area.
The criminal investigation was conducted by West Yorkshire Trading Standards Service and prosecuted by Wakefield MDC. The financial investigation to determine his criminal benefit was refereed to specialist confiscation staff at the North East Regional Asset Recovery Payback Team.
Following the service of a Restraint Order preventing Hemingway from hiding or spending his money, the RART Payback team discovered that Hemingway had breached the order and subsequently withdrawn tens of thousands of pounds. As a consequence he was held in contempt of Court and was sentenced to an additional three months imprisonment.
The indictment amounted to £38,340 however after a five day complex confiscation hearing at Bradford Crown Court His Honour Judge Shaun Spencer determined on the 24th June 2009 that Hemingway’s total benefit from crime was £7,011,103.
The confiscation investigation revealed that Hemingway, a former bankrupt, appeared to own a property portfolio including industrial units that were all registered in his wife’s name. His children attended a private school in the Wakefield area.
When requested to declare his assets to the Court, Hemingway failed to disclose that he was a joint owner of a property in Spain on the Costa Del Sol and that he had two motor boats. After these assets were discovered Hemingway told the Court that he purchased the boats on behalf of a traveller despite them being named ‘HEMIE I’ and ‘HEMIE II’.
His Honour Judge Spencer ordered Hemingway to pay a confiscation order to the value of £2,700,000. If this amount is not paid Hemingway will serve a further term of 6 years in prison and the order will remain payable.
Graham Hebblethwaite, Chief Officer of West Yorkshire Joint Services, said the legislation had proved to be a valuable tool to stop people benefiting financially from their criminal activities.
He said: "We have a number of such Proceeds of Crime Act investigations pending but this is the first that has been awarded in this area for this type of offence.
"This award by the court is as a result of a long and difficult investigation conducted by Trading Standards officers against a criminal who has benefited from his criminal activities for many years.
"Working with our partners, RART, police and local authority we have been able to hit Hemmingway where it hurts – his pocket – and ensure that he does not continue to benefit from his criminal activities."
DCI Steve Waite stated “this case dramatically demonstrates how the Proceeds of Crime Act legislation is being used by Financial Investigators to uncover and address the full scale of an offender’s criminal gain.
In this case the criminal charge amounted to some £38,000 but using the investigators specialist skills and the provisions of the Act to assume that this man had been living a criminal lifestyle, unless he could prove otherwise, the Judge accepted his true benefit from crime to be a staggering £7 million pounds. Furthermore, it was the view of the Court that he was in still position today to actually pay back £2.7 million. In the event that he refuses to do so, he will receive a further significant jail sentence, at the conclusion of which the RART Enforcement Court Section will still seek to recover the full amount of the order.
The uprooting of this type of criminal enterprise by law enforcement partners as in this case, including Trading Standards, Local Councils, Police, Court Services, CPS and HMRC will reassure members of the public purchasing goods & services across the whole range of markets not just second hand vehicles. The community can be assured that this partnership investigation model is having an impact across the entire spectrum of criminality. The RART North East Payback team has to-date returned over £27million to the community from criminal enterprises like this.”
The public should contact Crime Stoppers on 0800 555 111 or Trading Standards direct if they have information which may help identify others engaged in this or any other type of criminality.