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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
National
Tom Duffy

Women who were embroiled in crime as they helped partners

This week a woman was spared jail, despite helping her boyfriend sell drugs and launder dirty money, but she's not the only woman to help their partner commit criminal acts

Jodie Bowie recruited her own family to work for her drug dealing partner so she could live out a luxury lifestyle.

Manchester Crown Court heard how Bowie, who met Jonathan Walsh on Facebook, used his drug business to pay for designer clothes, expensive jewellery, high-powered cars and cosmetic surgery appointments.

READ MORE: Lavish lifestyle of gangster's girlfriend who recruited her own family into drug gang

When Jodie Bowie's home was raided the first time, police found over £100,000 worth of designer clothes as well as £10,000 in cash, reports the Manchester Evening News.

Bowie, of Medlock Road, Failsworth, Manchester received 21 months imprisonment, suspended for two years.

Jodie Bowie appeared at Manchester Crown Court charged with drugs related offences (Manchester Evening News)

She was also handed a three month curfew between 7pm and 5.30am, 140 hours unpaid work and ten rehabilitation activity requirement days, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply class B cannabis and money laundering.

Bowie is the latest example of women who are forced to face court after becoming embroiled in their partner's criminality.

Annie Webster

Warrington mum Annie Webster wired cash to her gangster boyfriend after he fled the UK for Dubai.

Shawn O'Malle y tied up two men and threatened them with weapons during a two hour ordeal at a cannabis farm.

O'Malley later left the country after he was involved in a gangland shooting in the Bolton area which was linked to Warrington criminal Leon Cullen.

Detectives then began to suspect that Webster was funding his existence in Dubai by wiring cash to him.

Police called around to Webster's home on January 24 when she told the police that she had split from O'Malley in November 2019 and was no longer in contact with him.

Annie Webster, 26, of Cumberland Street, Warrington appeared back in court today after breaching the terms of her community order. (Facebook)

On March 6, 2020 police executed a warrant at her home in Warrington, when she was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

After a search of her home police found evidence which revealed that she had been wiring thousands of pounds to her partner Dubai.

They established that she had flown out to Dubai in December 2019 where she had had bought 5,000 Dirhams and made cash payments to a UAE based law firm.

Webster later pleaded guilty to concealing, disguising, converting, transferring or removing criminal property and was sentenced to a two-year community order with a 25-day rehabilitation activity requirement.

Webster appeared at Liverpool Crown Court in January this year when she she admitted breaching the terms of her community order.

Webster, 26,was handed a fine of £150.

Helen Hartley

Brothers Alan and John Tobin organised a shooting carried out by a bogus pizza delivery man.

The Tobins supplied hundreds of kilos of cocaine, heroin, ketamine and cannabis to notorious gangs across the UK.

The Tobins downfall began when police seized a van carrying £20m worth of drugs on the M6.

The brothers then became embroiled in a complicated fall out between rival gangs across the north west which resulted in a 56-year-old Warrington man being shot on his doorstep.

Last August Liverpool Crown Court heard how Helen Hartley, 35, aka Ellie Tobin, married Alan Tobin at Lake Garda in Italy followed by a two-week £10,000 honeymoon.

A total of £220,000 was paid into Helen Hartley’s bank account between January 2016 and September last year but it was accepted she had some legitimate income as a beautician and she was sentenced on the basis that between £120,000 - £150,000 was the proceeds of crime.

Judge Garrett Bryne said she had “wilfully turned a blind eye” to where the money was coming from and also told her that her previous conviction in October 2019 for fraudulently obtaining council tax “demonstrates what a greedy person you can be.”

Hartley, of Regency Park, Widnes, who is also known by her married name of Ellie Tobin, had £8,665 cash paid into her bank account in June 2016 just before their marriage.

Later that summer a deposit of 3,000 Euros was made for an apartment to be purchased in her name in Spain.

Helen Hartley was jailed for nine months.

Helen's mum Ann Hartley, 63, of Aviemore Road, Old Swan, also admitted that offence involving £96,735.

She was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment, suspended for two years, and ordered to carry out 80 hours unpaid work and 10 days rehabilitation activities.

Nicola Daley, prosecuting, said that the granny “appeared to be involved in the family business, laundering the proceeds of it”.

She pointed out that she has a previous conviction for possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply in May 2013.

Kathryn Walker, 37, partner of John Tobin, also admitted possessing criminal property and the court heard about their lavish lifestyle and exotic holidays.

Walker, of Chamomile Close, Norris Green, was sentenced to 16 months imprisonment, suspended for two years, and ordered to carry out 80 hours unpaid work and 15 hours rehabilitation activities.

Alan Tobin , 52, of Regency Park, Widnes, was handed a 20 year sentence, while 41-year-old John Tobin , formerly of Manor Road, Prescot, was given 19 years and eight months, both for conspiracy to supply cocaine, heroin, ketamine and cannabis.

The brothers were sentenced at a later hearing for their part in a gangland shooting in Warrington.

Alan was handed eight years for conspiracies to cause GBH with intent and John was handed two and a half years for participating in the activities of an organised crime group.

Both sentences were consecutive - meaning they were added to the drugs sentences they were each given.

Lauren Callister

Callister enjoyed posing for glamorous selfies with her drug dealing boyfriend Christopher Williams as the couple enjoyed exotic holidays together.

Williams, from Old Swan, led a gang who flooded the streets of Barrow with Class A drugs.

While his underlings were ferrying drugs around the UK Williams found the time to take his partner on luxury holidays to the far east.

Photographs reveal the couple jetted off with friends to a luxury villa and the tropical beaches on the island of Koh Samui in Southeast Asia in January 2020.

Drug dealer Christopher Williams and his money laundering girlfriend Lauren Callister (Liverpool Echo)

Callister - who laundered around £15,000 of dirty cash for Williams via her bank account - boasted online "best place iv ever stayed" as she shared sunkissed snaps of her posing in a bikini on a boat trip with her drug dealer boyfriend at the beautiful Pileh Lagoon.

In another picture Callister can be seen enjoying the ocean views of a private residence overlooking Chaweng Bay and the Gulf of Thailand while floating on an inflatable flamingo.

Meanwhile police were closing in on the drug gang back in the UK.

Officers arrested Williams and Callister when they raided the couple's home in Old Swan on June 23 2020.

Callister admitted converting criminal property and walked free from court after being handed a two-year community order with a 50-day Rehabilitation Activity Requirement and 80 hours of unpaid work.

Williams pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiring to supply Class A drugs and was jailed for eight and a half years.

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