The Downfall: Day of reckoning arrives for Stevenson in court

Jun 1 2008

ALMOST four years after Operation Folklore was launched, Jamie Stevenson faced a very public day of reckoning.

He stood in the dock of the High Court in Glasgow on Tuesday, April 10, 2007, waiting to be sentenced.

Looking smart in a blue pinstripe suit and open-necked pink shirt, he appeared ready for business. Worryingly for him, so did the judge, Lord Hodge.

He listened intently as Crown prosecutor Sean Murphy summarised the evidence against Stevenson and stepson Carbin.

The lawyers had done a deal. Stevenson and Carbin admitted laundering more than s1million of drugs money.

In return, charges of cocaine and heroin smuggling and of Stevenson having a false passport would be dropped.

Their partners, Caroline and Karen, had already walked free.

The judge was told how Stevenson and Carbin were in court to admit "laundering substantial proceeds from drugs trafficking...including class A drugs".

The prosecutor took the judge through each of the five charges that had been brought under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

The charges covered s204,510 seized from Carbin's home; s98,605 that Stevenson used to buy 10 Skoda Octavias for CS Cars, a taxi business run by his wife Caroline; s389,035 recovered by police as Stevenson associates transferred it from a hiding place; and s307,087 of dirty money spent on 57 luxury watches.

Forty-four of the watches - all of them luxury brands, including Rolex, and Cartier and a s30,000 Audemars Piguet - had been found in the homes searched by police in the early morning raids that brought Folklore to its conclusion.

Stevenson and Carbin admitted laundering more than s1million profits from drugs trafficking over the four years of Operation Folklore.

The judge told Carbin: "It is clear that you had a significant role in the money-laundering group. You are described as one of his senior associates."

He sentenced Carbin to 11 years and nine months on three charges to be served concurrently.

Stevenson was the biggest criminal to face money-laundering charges since Scots prosecutors began chasing their dirty fortunes - and the biggest scalp possible for Scotland's law enforcers.

Stevenson was hoping for seven years, maybe eight. Lord Hodge had other ideas. Sentencing him to nine years and nine months for the charges involving the cash and watches and a further three years for the taxi firm launched with dirty money, the judge said Stevenson had been caught as his criminal operations were "developing and expanding".

He said: "You had also two large sums of money, which were the proceeds of crime. This also confirms your position at a very high level in the criminal hierarchy."

The judge acknowledged the police assault on the underworld's financial systems because money laundering "went hand in hand with the drugs trade and contributed materially to its profitability".

He added: "Operation Folklore was a big success because, all too frequently, it is the small players who are detected and punished."

Stevenson gave a thumbs-up to the gallery as he was taken down to the holding cells below the court to begin his sentence.

Afterwards, the SCDEA's Stephen Ward noted that the capture of Stevenson, the elite agency's No.1 target, was a signal to other big-time criminals.

He said: "Stevenson considered himself untouchable. I think today's outcome very clearly indicates that any individual or group involved in serious organised crime in Scotland cannot consider themselves untouchable."