Six people who benefited from the lucrative drug dealings of an organised crime group (OCG) will repay just a fraction of the £20m profits.
The OCG was headed up by brothers Alan and John Tobin who supplied hundreds of kilos of narcotics to notorious gangs across the UK. While maintaining the veneer of respectability due to their public service work, the brothers lived a second life as EncroChat dealers "CapeRocket" and "SlightDrake".
For more than four years, between 2016 and 2020, the Tobins enlisted couriers utilising specially adapted vehicles with secret "hide" compartments to ferry drugs across the UK. Among their infamous customers were two Warrington firms - Anthony and Leon Cullen's heavily armed gang and a group headed by Jamie Oldroyd - plus a Liverpool outfit led by Lee Stoba.
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The brothers were supported by heavyweight MMA fighter Robbie "the Bear" Broughton, whose role included collecting cash and using his muscle to enforce debts. Enjoying the high-life off the back of the gang's illegal labour were Ellie Tobin, also known as Helen Hartley, her mum Ann Hartley and Kathryn Walker.
The women enjoyed expensive holidays, cars and designer clothing after helping move drug money through their banks. But now the six members of the OCG, who were collectively jailed for more than 69 years, have been ordered to pay over £500,000 and have had their homes seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA).
At the final hearing on Friday, March 10, a judge ruled the six had benefited from the crime group to the sum of £20,098,000. The court ordered them to pay within the next three months - or face a further two years imprisonment. This sum has been partly determined from equity in Helen Hartley and Ann Hartley's homes in Widnes and Liverpool which will need to be sold, along with cash, jewellery, designer clothing and funds from bank accounts.
The Tobin brothers' drug empire came crashing down after police intercepted a van, driven by a man named Jamie Simpson, ferrying £20m of cocaine up the M6. The raid yielded 186kg of cocaine which was stashed under floorboards and in a specially adapted "hide". It was the largest ever seizure of cocaine on land in the UK.
Following the huge seizure of the class A drugs, the Tobin brothers were struggling with "large debts". On February 6 2020 John Tobin was shot on a Prescot housing estate after "a number of forceful requests for money" were made against him.
The Tobins were forced to become much more "hands on" in their drug conspiracies by April 2020 after several associates, including the Cullen brothers and Oldroyd, were taken down in a series of police operations. The net tightened around the brothers even tighter following the botched "pizza delivery" hit on the wrong man.
Cheshire's Serious and Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) began an investigation and following a number of warrants in September 2020, the brothers were arrested and charged. They were sentenced to a combined total of 39 years and 8 months imprisonment at Chester Crown Court in April 2021.
Broughton was jailed for eight and a half years in the supply of class A drugs. Ellie Tobin was jailed for nine months in July 2021, while Hartley was sentenced to 20 months in prison suspended for two years, and Walker handed 16 months behind bars also suspended for two years.
A spokesperson from Cheshire Constabulary's SOCU said: "This is the perfect example of how crime does not pay and shows the lengths we will go to in order to target those who have profited from crime. Not only were Alan Tobin and John Tobin handed lengthy prison sentences, but they must also now pay back every penny they made from their illegal exploits.
"POCA orders allow us to recoup all of criminal’s benefit from crime - by not only ensuring that criminals are locked behind bars, we are able to also ensure that they cannot enjoy any money received once a sentence is served. Helen and Ann Hartley, the wife and mother-in-law of Alan Tobin, were not directly involved with the drug aspect of the organisation, but they were sure to indulge in the profits made.
"Helen and Ann both had houses that were of significant equity, paid for by Alan and John’s criminality. Thankfully as a result of the hearing, they will no longer be able to turn a blind eye and enjoy the proceeds of this criminal enterprise.
"This money will no longer be ploughed back into criminality. We will do all we can to ensure that criminals operating in Cheshire are unable to profit from their crimes and will work with our partners and the Crown Prosecution Service to use all available powers at our disposal."
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