A mum who sent over £6,000 to her drug dealing boyfriend in Dubai has been spared jail and told to pay back just £150 instead.
Annie Webster, 26, wired £6,066.85 to her then boyfriend Shawn O'Malley, who was on the run from police in Dubai in relation to a gangland shooting, the Liverpool Echo reports.
O'Malley, a well known drug dealer from Warrington, was linked by police to a shooting in Bolton on September 9 2019 when a house was sprayed with bullets.
READ MORE:
He was jailed for 18 years at Liverpool Crown Court in September, following the shooting which he organised on behalf of Warrington criminal Leon Cullen.
His prison sentence also related to the torture of two men at a remote cannabis farm, where he tied, beat and threatened them with weapons including a pick axe and sledge hammer.
In July, Bolton Crown Court heard how O'Malley's partner Annie Webster sent thousands of pounds to him while he was on the run in Dubai in relation to a gangland shooting.
When police visited Webster's home in January 2020 she told them she had split from O'Malley in November 2019 and was no longer in contact with him.
On March 6, 2020 police executed a warrant at Webster's home in Warrington, when she was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
During a search of her house police recovered a number of items including: A Western Union Money Transfer Document in her name, an Emirates Economy Boarding Pass in her name, and a receipt voucher for a Dubai based law firm.
From a storage area under the stairs in her home, police found a money transfer receipt for £962.56 dated February 4, 2020, a Ghaya Brand Hotel luggage claim ticket, a money transfer receipt dated February 7, 2020 and her passport.
Following a police search and interview, Webster pleaded guilty to concealing, disguising, converting, transferring or removing criminal property. A charge of conspiring to pervert the course of justice will also lay on file.
Webster, of Cumberland Street, Warrington, was sentenced to a two-year community order with a 25-day rehabilitation activity requirement at Bolton Crown Court back in July last year.
But she appeared back in Liverpool Crown Court yesterday where she admitted breaching the terms of her community order.
Rebecca Smith, prosecuting, told the court Webster has so far completed five days of the rehabilitation activity requirement since the community order was imposed last summer.
However, the 26-year-old failed to attend two planned appointments with probation in September and November 2021.
Webster's defence barrister, Kate Morley, told the court her client suffers with anxiety and depression and finds it easier to engage on the telephone as opposed to leaving her home to attend office appointments at times.
Ms Morley said Webster had missed the appointments in September and November due to childcare issues with her six-year-old son, who was unwell and has had to have six teeth removed.
The court heard Webster also had to self-isolate after her mum tested positive for Covid-19 until she received a negative test result.
Ms Morley said while her client should have picked up the phone and informed probation of this she didn't, and she apologises for that.
The court heard Webster is now working in a local bar and hasn't committed any other offences.
Ms Morley said: "She has attended today despite her father sadly suffering a heart attack and passing away last week."
Sentencing, Judge Robert Trevor-Jones said: "I'm quite sure that when you were sentenced to this community order back in June last year you would have been told what would happen if you failed to comply with it, so here you are now because of that."
The judge said that while he had the power to revoke Webster's community order and resentence her to imprisonment, he was not going to do that on the grounds that this is her first conviction and first breach, and because she has a six-year-old son.
However, he warned that if Webster continues not to meet the requirements of the community order she will be brought back to court to face the consequences.
Webster was handed a fine of £150 which must be paid back over the next six months.
See the latest court and crime news in your area by receiving email updates
