A RETIRED tax sleuth who stole a lifeless man’s id in a fancy £170,000 VAT rip-off had hyperlinks to a agency arrange by a gangland determine, we will reveal.
James McGee, 66, was paid hundreds through the boss of an organization which millionaire boxing promoter Mario Rea, 43 – a bitter enemy of the infamous Lyons crime gang – established.
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James McGee leaves Ayr Sheriff Courtroom
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Millionaire boxing promoter Mario ReaCredit score: Pressteam
The money was given over by William McLean, 62 – then a sole director of one other Rea-formed enterprise known as NRP Scotland.
Funds have been made in 2012, the yr Rea was barred from being a director for seven years.
He had failed to clarify why greater than £1million had vanished from one in every of his companies, DMR Belongings.
Particulars emerged after McGee – who held accounts within the title of a Lee McEwan – was nailed over an underworld-linked VAT fraud he concocted after 35 years as a tax investigator.
Official paperwork present Mr McLean turned NRP’s sole director in Might 2012, 5 years after Rea based the corporate from his former mansion in Airdrie, Lanarkshire.
Glasgow Housing Affiliation staff chief Mr McLean testified at McGee’s Ayr Sheriff Courtroom trial, which heard “an Asian man” had paid him £400 to open an Airdrie Financial savings Checking account for NRP throughout a gathering on the street.
He claimed to have visited the financial institution the next day with a unique man, who he stated was white, in his 40s, and known as “George”.
Cash was then transferred from Mr McLean’s NRP account to a Nationwide account held within the title of Mr McEwan.
The transactions have been for £5,600 and £6,000. The courtroom heard Mr McLean denied signing the cheques.
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He additionally insisted that he had by no means met a Lee McEwan or McGee, of Troon, Ayrshire.
Mr McLean stated he didn’t know that he was a director of NRP until he was arrested at his Glasgow house in Might 2014 and quizzed by MRC officers and police.
The dad of two denied ever having acquired correspondence from the taxman about NRP Scotland Restricted.
McGee’s defence advocate Allan Macleod offered proof of letters addressed to Mr McLean’s house detailing excellent quantities of £3,000 and £37,000 NRP owed HMRC.
Mr McLean stated he “couldn’t bear in mind” the letters and that he had grow to be unwittingly concerned.
He instructed the courtroom: “I’m devastated I fell into this. I’m gutted.”
Rea was charged with medication and cash laundering offences in 2008 earlier than prosecutors dropped the case because of “inadequate proof”.
TARGETED BY GANG WITH IRA LINKS
He was convicted in 2013 of attacking Eddie Lyons Jnr at a birthday celebration in 2011.
In June 2012, we instructed how police warned Rea he was being focused by a Northern Eire crime gang linked to the Actual IRA.
Rea was stabbed that yr within the head, again and arm in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire.
In 2015, Lyons crew thug Victor Gallagher was nicked with crime clan member Eddie Lyons Jnr for the alleged blade assault on the boxing tycoon.
Gallagher, Lyons and Ross Monaghan appeared at Airdrie Sheriff Courtroom.
The case towards Lyons was deserted earlier than fees that Gallagher and Monaghan assaulted and completely scarred Rea have been dropped.
The alleged knife assault came about on the day Rea assaulted Lyons’ crony Liam Boyle at a cinema in Hamilton.
Rea admitted utilizing a key, relatively than a knife, on Boyle’s face.
And in 2019 thugs smashed by way of safety gates on the tycoon’s mansion in a automotive they torched earlier than fleeing, leaving scorch marks.
It was the second time that the property has been focused.
Sources on the time claimed that he was focused over his feud with the Lyons crime clan six years earlier than. One stated: “This was clearly a warning.
“It’s the equal of waking up and discovering a horse’s head in your mattress.”
We instructed how conman McGee, who masterminded the plan after he retired, stole the lifeless man’s id in a plot to cheat his former bosses out of £170,000.
He tried to assert he was on the mercy of a thriller dangerous man after turning “from tax specialist to tax swindler” however the lie backfired.
He was convicted of fraudulent evasion of £101,443 of VAT and tried evasion of £70,351 and was jailed for two and a half years final week.
The offences have been aggravated by “a connection to critical organised crime” the courtroom was instructed.
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