Hyndburn scrap car boss back in prison (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Hyndburn scrap car boss back in prison

2:00pm Saturday 17th October 2009 in

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THE owner of a car scrapping business who made £100,000 from handling stolen vehicles has been sent back to jail.

Colin Waters, who used to own a scrap and car breaking business in Altham, failed to pay back the majority of his crime profits. Waters, 39, of Bury, amassed the £100,000 in criminal assets from handling stolen vehicles and car parts when he was in charge of Bury VW Breakers, in Altham.

He pleaded guilty to a string of 16 offences at Burnley Crown Court in October 2006 in connection with the breaking and disposal of stolen high-value Volkswagen and Audi cars.

Police found stolen engines and other car parts at the business he owned at the time, as well as stolen vehicle parts at another site in Bury.

He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, and a confiscation order was made for him to repay the profits he had made from his crimes, or serve a 12-month default sentence.

But since Waters was released after serving his sentence, he had only repaid little more than £10,000, despite being given further time to pay.

At Bolton Magistrates’ Court this week he again requested an extension, but was jailed for failing to meet the confiscation deadline. He can be released before the end of the extra term if he pays the full amount within that time. Waters may now have to face selling his two houses in Bury, and two luxury cars – a Subaru Impreza Turbo and an Audi RS A6 – identified in the Proceeds of Crime confisc-ation order, police said.

Peter Wilde, senior crown prosecutor from the Crown Prosecution Service in East Lancashire, said: “The tenacity of the police and the Crown Prosecution Service in pursuing this case has paid off. As a team we have been determined that Colin Waters would not wriggle out of his responsibility to pay.

“He has made little effort to pay the amount and has tried a number of excuses to avoid paying.

“The extra jail term does not extinguish his debt and, having failed to impress the magistrates with his request for even more time to pay, he now has a lot of time to consider how, and when, he will repay it.

“This case shows how persistent we will be in using the Proceeds of Crime powers to pursue offenders through the courts so they do not profit from their crimes.”