Chorley Couple's Criminal Assets Returned To Victims

26/05/2010

A couple from Chorley who ran a fraudulent debt recovery business were ordered to pay back over £303,000 of their criminal assets at Preston Crown Court today.

The money will be paid back to companies and individuals who lost money through the debt recovery scam.

Wade Johnson and Merle Saldre-Johnson defrauded dozens of small businesses of an estimated £750,000 through their company Network Debt Recovery Ltd (NDR) which operated from Church St, Preston.  The company's advertising promised that disbursement fees which were paid in advance would be refunded if debts were not collected, but the majority of companies never saw the fees again and the majority of debts were never recovered.

The couple pleaded guilty to two counts each of fraudulent trading on the day that their trial was due to begin at Preston Crown Court in March.  They admitted that they had made fraudulent representations in the company's marketing material and made fraudulent representations through sales representatives. They also admitted withholding information from the Office of Fair Trading in order to maintain or renew consumer credit licences.  Large sums of money had been transferred from the company accounts to bank accounts controlled by Wade Johnson and were used by the pair to fund a lavish lifestyle.

Wade Johnson was jailed for four years and Merle Saldre-Johnson was given a 40-week suspended jail sentence and ordered to carry out to carry out 200 hours unpaid community work for her part in the scam.

John Dilworth, Head of the Complex Casework Unit for the Crown Prosecution Service in Lancashire said: "We work closely with the police and the courts to make sure that criminal assets are confiscated so that offenders do not get any financial gain from their crimes. 

"I would like to pay tribute to the extensive financial investigations that the police have carried out in this case to identify any remaining assets that the Johnsons have.  Through the court process we have made sure that those assets will now be confiscated to pay back the companies and individuals who were defrauded. 

"The Proceeds of Crime Act is a very powerful tool for police and prosecutors to use to make sure that crime does not pay."

Enquiries will continue to identify and recover any further assets that the couple have.  If further assets are identified the CPS will make an additional application to the court to have those assets confiscated.

Between April 2009 and March 2010 CPS and police in Lancashire seized £1,570,923.03 through Proceeds of Crime legislation.