The Bimbos lose £164,000
Last updated 09:19, Thursday, 15 May 2008
THE downfall and humiliation of a one-time Carlisle drugs baron is now complete after a court ruling which may force him and his wife to sell their home and rings to hand back their profits of crime.
Brian ‘Bimbo’ O’Neil is already languishing in jail after being given a 12-and-a-half year sentence for peddling heroin.
Now the 50-year-old has been ordered to hand over £123,000 to police – the profits that he made from dealing in drugs and misery.
It is likely to mean selling the home he shared with his wife Linda on Percy Road, Longsowerby, Carlisle, which is valued at £80,000.
And if O’Neil, whose drugs network extended onto every estate in the city, fails to come up with the money within the next six months then he’ll spend even longer behind bars.
His financial fate was decided yesterday at Preston Crown Court by Judge Christopher Cornwall – the man who originally sent him away in 2006 for conspiring to sell heroin.
Alongside O’Neil in the dock was his 47-year-old wife who is shortly to be released from a five year sentence for the same crime.
She has to pay the police £41,292.11p in the next six months or face a return to prison. Her wedding and engagement rings are among the assets that the police already hold.
The court heard that they are regarded as being among her husband’s assets and that if she wants them back she will have to buy them.
The confiscation orders were made under the Proceeds of Crime Act which is designed to ensure that criminals don’t profit from their crimes.
Prosecutor Tim Evans said that O’Neil had boasted on a tape which was secretly recorded by police that he had a house worth £850,000. Strenuous efforts to locate it had proved unsuccessful.
The judge praised the efforts of finance investigator Kate Needham and suggested that she should be commended by the Chief Constable.
After the hearing Detective Superintendent Paul Carter, of Cumbria police, said he was delighted that criminal gangs could be hit in this way.
And he warned anyone tempted to try and step into O’Neil’s shoes that they too would end up as big-time losers.
He said: “Anyone tempted into drug dealing should rest assured that we will get to hear about their activities through our local policing teams. People talk to their community officers.
“These dealers will then be targeted and intelligence will be gathered on them. One day we’ll be going through their door, making arrests and bringing them before the courts.
“What yesterday shows is that they pay for their crimes in two ways. They go to prison for a long time and they pay a financial penalty. They can lose their homes and cars.
“This is all part of our Respect agenda. Law-abiding people don’t want to see drug dealers among their communities because they know it leads to other crimes.
O’Neil’s brother-in-law Ronald Jeffrey, 51, of Brookside, Raffles, Carlisle, was also before the court yesterday.
He must pay the police £1,427.89.
He has already served a sentence for money laundering offences which helped O’Neil to resume his drug-dealing after an earlier spell in jail.
Four other relatives were dealt with on Monday when the judge ordered them to hand over a total of about £60,000.
