A former golf shop boss caught in a £25k money laundering scheme has been allowed to abandon the bulk of his community service because he did not want to work alongside fellow cons who were drinking.
Moray Anderson was handed the order last year after admitting his role in a cash flow racket linked to a known drug dealer.
Perth Sheriff Court heard how he had been persuaded to make a series of large deposits into the crook’s bank account as part of a criminal attempt to disguise the true source of the money.
Detectives tracking the dealer’s finances were alerted to a series of suspect transactions – including cash payments of £4,500 – over a six-month period.
They found the money was coming from Anderson’s account.
At the time he was boss of Scone’s Murrayshall golf shop but there has been no suggestion the business was involved in the scheme.
In August last year, he was sentenced to 300 hours unpaid work and placed on a six-month restriction of liberty order.
The 51-year-old returned to Perth Sheriff Court this week to apply for a legal variation of his community payback order.
A ‘not insignificant’ crime
His solicitor Darren Bell said: “My client is a recovering alcoholic and there was alcohol being consumed by other workers on this order.
“That is the issue in a nutshell.”
Since the order was imposed last summer, Anderson has only completed 130 of the 300 hours.
The court heard he had a new full-time job as a project worker for a housing company.
Sheriff Clair McLachlan was told Anderson is willing to pay a fine.
The sheriff was handed letters of support from Anderson’s new employers.
“It is a very unusual set of circumstances,” she said.
“The reports are very supportive and I accept that there are good grounds to vary the order.”
The sheriff told Anderson: “I do consider that you have paid back to society to a considerable degree, so I will revoke the order and I will not make any further order.”
‘Thought it was a tax dodge’
Anderson, of Castle View, Perth, was previously told by different sheriff: “You are standing on the doorstep of Perth Prison and banging on the door, asking to be let in.”
Court papers show he received £25,787 worth of cash deposits into his account.
He then transferred £24,616 into the account of the drug dealer – who was not named in court papers – to conceal the source.
Anderson pled guilty to acquiring and transferring criminal property between January 1 and June 6 2019, a breach of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
The court heard he had little recollection of his offending.
Social workers were sceptical about the level of his understanding.
But Anderson’s life at the time was described as “chaotic”.
At the August 2023 hearing, solicitor Kevin Hampton, defending, said: “He knew what he was doing wasn’t right, but he wasn’t aware there was a drugs background here.
“He thought it was more a tax avoidance position.”
He said his client had since rebuilt his life.
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