Dad made £390,763.89 from role in tanning salon daughter's drug empire

The father of a woman who used her tanning salon as a front for an organised crime group in Leyland has been ordered to pay back £12.284.66 of his ill gotten gains.
Brian DuffinBrian Duffin
Brian Duffin

Brian Duffin, 66, appeared at Preston Crown Court by video link from HMP Preston where he is serving a six year jail term for drugs offences.

His daughter Leanne Duffin, who ran the Cosmopolitan Suntan Salon on Leyland Lane, was previously jailed for eight years for supplying class A drugs across Chorley, South Ribble and Preston.

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Duffin, whose substantial "business" income was found to have come from supplying drugs, will face a separate Proceeds of Crime Act hearing on June 4.

Leanne DuffinLeanne Duffin
Leanne Duffin

Both defendants lived in Greenways in Standish, Wigan.

Preston Crown Court heard Brian Duffin benefitted to the tune of £390,763.89 from his crimes, but that the only assets available for the authorities to seize were worth £12.284.66.

Prosecuting, Charlie Brown said the assets comprised of £116.22 cash, a TSB account containing £3,415.64, a Royal London policy worth £4,252.80, and a Range Rover vehicle.

He added: " All are in the possession of the police. The consent for the release of funds has not yet been signed but I understand there'll be no problem.

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"The Range Rover will be sold at auction. The value is estimated between £4,000 and £4,500 .

"The authority to sell that was signed by him yesterday. Some work needs to be done on the vehicle.

Judge Robert Altham said: "I do find that the benefit in this case is £390,763.89 and that the available assets are £12,284.66.

"I therefore order a confiscation in that sum to be paid by August 12 or he will face 12 months in default."Over the years Leanne Duffin and her drug syndicate flooded the streets of Chorley and South Ribble with cocaine and cannabis before extending to Preston.

They used the tanning salon as a mask for respectability.

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At the time of the Duffins sentencing, the court ruled the exploitation of vulnerable young people pressurised into dealing the drugs was an aggravating feature of the case.

Among the other gang members, Geraldine Robinson, 51, of Chapel Lane, Coppull, was sentenced to four years, Jordan Whittle, 19, of Greenways in Standish, Wigan, to three years and eight months and Kevin Hewitt, 51, of Market Street, Adlington, for 12 months.

The Duffins, Robinson and Whittle all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supplying Class A and B drugs, while Hewitt pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supplying Class B drugs.