Crime gang member Joseph Lindsay to pay back £103,000 of 'dirty money'
- Published
Joseph Lindsay admitted breaching proceeds of crime legislation
A crime gang member who fled abroad has agreed to hand over more than £100,000 to settle a proceeds of crime action.
Joseph Lindsay, 34, was brought back to Scotland to face justice after he was traced in Tenerife by Spanish police.
He was jailed for four-and-a-half years in 2019 after he admitted agreeing with others to conceal and disguise criminal property.
At his trial, a judge said Lindsay, from Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, was an "integral" part of the gang.
The High Court in Glasgow had heard that in January 2017 police searched an industrial unit in East Kilbride.
Officers found a lorry with a hiding place containing more than £500,000 in cash in plastic tubs.
One tub, which contained £95,010, was forensically examined and DNA matching Lindsay was found on elastic bands wrapped round banknotes.
Prosecutions against members of the gang for drugs, firearms, serious violence and "dirty money" offences resulted in prison terms totalling more than 100 years.
Bundles of cash were found in a truck
Their operation centred on the importation of vast quantities of cocaine, with the organised crime group acting as wholesalers to drug dealers lower down the chain.
Police believed that Lindsay's role in the gang was managing and handling dirty money for the gang.
Following his conviction, the Crown raised proceedings against Lindsay to claim profits of crime from him.
The flatbed truck was found at an industrial unit in East Kilbride
A two-day hearing was scheduled for later this week at the High Court in Edinburgh, but Lindsay's counsel Tony Lenehan told judge Lord Arthurson that a settlement had now been reached.
As Lindsay watched via a video link from prison, Mr Lenehan told the court that it was agreed that Lindsay's benefit from general criminal conduct was £376,000.
It was also agreed that the amount available that could be confiscated from him was £103,937, including money held by a Glasgow credit union.
Advocate depute Dan Byrne asked the court to make a confiscation order for £103,937 during the brief hearing.