Express & Star

Money-laundering wife of Wolverhampton drugs baron spared jail

The money-laundering wife of a major drugs baron has been spared jail after a court heard of her miserable life at his hands.

Published

Hayley Wilson secretly took some of the cash from the racket to husband Karl in Jamaica where he had fled to a luxury seaside villa. He lived in Jamaica as police closed in on his operation that ran hard drugs from Wolverhampton to Aberdeen where it sold over two kilos of heroin a month.

Karl Wilson's Jamaican villa

The 50-year-old former prostitute and £100-a-night escort also used dirty money to pay for a £9,000 fitted kitchen at her home in Yew Tree Lane, Tettenhall, and had £360 in tell-tale Scottish notes when police swooped on the property.

Mother-of-three Mrs Wilson had been given £40,000 from a bundle of money 'the size of a rugby ball' handed by her husband to his cousin Leon Samuels before leaving the UK, the Wolverhampton Crown Court trial that led to her conviction for money laundering was told.

She also admitted committing a contempt of court by selling a Mercedes SL320 in contravention of a restraining order.

Drug dealer Karl Wilson

Mr Michael Burrows QC, prosecuting, explained: "Hayley Wilson is the wife of a major drug dealer who made a lot of money from cocaine and heroin. The money spent on the kitchen units, found in her possession and taken by her to Jamaica was all from his dealing in drugs. She knew or, at the very least, would have suspected that."

But Mr Julian Nutter, defending, told the court when she appeared for sentence: "Her husband is a ruthless drug dealer and brutal man who was known to beat the women in his life. This does not excuse her behaviour but it puts it in context."

Karl Wilson is now serving 16 years in jail after being extradited from Jamaica and admitting conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine between March 2002 and February 2009.

The lawyer continued: "His wife has just managed to rebuild her life and is becoming happier and more contented with her new existence without him."

Mrs Wilson, who had a string of previous convictions for prostitution mainly in the 1990s, married him in 1992 but had been with him since 1989, her trial heard.

She had £120,000 saved in a building society account in June 2001 which was withdrawn soon afterwards, the court was told.

It was suggested that much of the money went to her husband and Mr Nutter claimed she later used some of his drug money to pay off that 'debt'.

He explained: "She lost a substantial sum to her husband and it became an obsession of hers to get some of it back. She shut her eyes to the origin of the money because she saw it as her entitlement. She was on the very periphery of the drug conspiracy rather than at its heart. For much of the time he had taken another woman who also lived in Wolverhampton, much to his wife's embarrassment."

Mr Nutter concluded: "To send her into custody at her age and after the miserable life she has had to endure would be neither necessary nor appropriate in this case."

"Forthcoming Proceeds of Crime proceedings would remove 'whatever is left of the shirt on her back," he said.

Mrs Wilson who had been convicted of three charges of money laundering and admitted the contempt of court offence was given a two-year jail term suspended for two years with 240 hours unpaid work.

Judge Martin Walsh told her: "You benefited from the proceeds of your husband's drug dealing but I accept that you were in thrall to, and perhaps under the control of, this violent offender.

The judge also commended Det Con Phil Houghton who had been at the helm of the six-and-a-half year investigation into Karl Wilson and his drug gang. It led to the conviction of 12 defendants who received between two and 16 year prison sentences for their roles in the racket. Dc Houghton said afterwards: "It is nice to have your work recognised. It was a job well done."

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.