A MAN who laundered money for rogue builders who had conned a Presteigne pensioner out of £150,000 will have pay back £7,500 into his estate.
Gareth Hodgkins, 43, from Newport in Shropshire, had benefited to the tune of £97,440 through money laundering, the judge Mr Recorder Charles Fox ruled under The Proceeds of Crime Act at Mold Crown Court, sitting at Chester.
Last August Hodgkins received a 52 week suspended prison sentence after he admitted money laundering.
At the time the court heard how a Presteigne pensioner was conned out of thousands of pounds by rogue builders who did shoddy repair work to his bungalow, charging him a fortune.
The victim, 88-year-old Trevor Hudson, from Walton, who has since died, was intimidated into giving cash and cheques – and was even driven to building societies and to cashpoints to withdraw cash for the fraudsters.
But the value of the work done to the roof, guttering and drive in 2007 was only about £6,000.
Last summer Hodgkins, who received four of the cheques to the value of more than £150,000, admitted two money laundering charges involving £53,400 and £44,000, and had provided goods to that value from the furniture business he then ran.
It was accepted that Hodgkins was not involved in the original scam on the pensioner, said to have been carried out by travellers.
However, he changed his pleas and admitted that by the time he received the second and third cheques from them he had become suspicious that they may have been the proceeds of crime.
He believed that it could have been a way for someone to avoid paying VAT, but knew nothing about Mr Hudson being conned.
Hodgkins had no assets and the only amount available for confiscation was £7,567 which was the amount of money seized by Dyfed-Powys Police during their investigation.
It was agreed that money already in the possession of the police should be paid as compensation into the estate of Mr Hudson.
The order was made in the absence of Hodgkins, who was not required to attend the hearing.