A "house husband" with a low IQ ended up in court after he installed a safe in a child's bedroom with nearly £50,000 inside. Michael Bentley has an IQ in the bottom five percent of the population and even lower in terms of his verbal comprehension, Nottingham Crown Court heard.
His criminally-convicted brother Samuel Lowe, a self-employed removal man, asked him to install the safe which had £49,460 inside. Both brothers pleaded guilty to possessing criminal property after the safe was found at Bentley's home on March 2, 2019, in a police raid.
The safe was screwed into an airing cupboard behind suitcases, boxes of clothes, and could only be accessed via electronic keypad. Additionally, around a kilo of cannabis resin was under insulation in the loft, but neither man had been aware it was there. They were only sentenced over the cash.
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Father-of-two Bentley, 34, of Highcliffe Road, Sneinton, suggested in a prepared statement to police he was asked by a third party, who he refused to name, to keep the safe at the address. He denied ever seeing the cash but accepted he installed the safe.
Then he said his brother asked him to install the safe. Lowe, 31, of the same address, had said in a pre-sentence report he was approached by a third party to store items in the safe. He has 18 convictions for 24 offences including possessing Ecstasy, cannabis, and assault, causing bodily harm.
Bentley, represented by barrister Laura Pitman, said he was not a sophisticated criminal. He has an abnormally low IQ and extremely low verbal comprehension abilities. Both Bentley and his wife are childhood sweethearts and have never been involved in criminal activity and claim benefits.
Over three years, £52,000 went into the wife's account which was three years of benefits. "These are people at the time, and currently, who lead a very simple life," said Miss Pitman. "They both have their difficulties".
Bentley was asked to put a safe into his home. He accepted he asked no questions, but conceded there came a time he suspected what was taking place which related to criminality.
He was handed a community order for two years and a tagged curfew for two months between 9pm and 7am. The judge told him he describes himself as, "a house husband", and his wife controls the finances. She ordered the drugs be destroyed and the cash forfeit.
Father-of-three Low received 18 months in prison, suspended for two years, 120 hours of unpaid work and 20 rehabilitation activity days. Nick Walsh, mitigating, said: "His case is essentially he was asked by someone else to look after this cash. He suspects that that cash came from the proceeds of drugs. He did not know precisely where it was from."
