Press release: Crime doesn’t pay for imprisoned former bankrupt faced with losing ‘proceeds of crime home’

In 2016, Alan Yeomans, then of Shedley Manor, Yeavley, was sentenced to 6 and a half years imprisonment for offences including money laundering, bankruptcy offences, and cultivation of cannabis.

At the sentencing hearing at Derby Crown Court, HHJ Shant QC described Mr Yeomans as a liar who had become involved in drug dealing.

Mr Yeomans then faced confiscation proceedings at Derby Crown Court, brought by the Insolvency Service.
On 17 May 2018, HHJ Bennett made a confiscation order against Mr Yeomans, which deprives him of £650,000, being the proceeds of his crimes. If Mr Yeomans fails to pay his confiscation order he faces a further prison sentence of 66 months.

The court recognised that Yeomans, aged 63, had obtained £1 million benefit from his various criminal activities. The assets held by Mr Yeomans included his home, Shedley Manor, as well as Rolex watches and valuable works of art and antiques.

Shedley Manor is a property built by Mr Yeomans and concealed in a barn in the Derbyshire countryside.

Alan Yeomans’ prison sentence followed his conviction in 2016, on charges of failing to disclose to the Official Receiver that he owned antiques and oil paintings worth £83,250, acting in the management of three Derbyshire companies, Shearstud Limited, Easy Tools Limited and B Clarke Limited and money laundering.

At his trial, he pleaded guilty to these offences plus being involved in the production of cannabis and possession of illegal CS gas canisters which were found during the search.

Mr Yeomans continues to serve his prison sentence and will now lose his home and much of his property seized from “Shedley Manor” during the investigation.

Glenn Wicks, the officer in charge of the investigation, commented:

He has been made bankrupt twice and the second bankruptcy was extended by the Official Receiver.

The Insolvency Service has made this man pay for his crimes. He is serving a prison sentence and we have now taken action to ensure that he has not profited from his crimes.

Notes to editors

Alan Yeomans is a two-time bankrupt, having been made bankrupt in 1993 and 2009.His date of birth is November 1954.

Following an Insolvency Service investigation, Mr Yeomans signed a Bankruptcy Restrictions Undertaking (BRU) in 2010, for six years.

In 2016, Mr Yeomans received a lengthy prison sentence for a number of crimes ranging from fraud in companies to being involved in the illegal growth of cannabis.

Alan Yeomans, then of Shedley Manor, Yeavely, Derbyshire was charged with failing to disclose to the Official Receiver that he owned antiques and oil paintings worth £83,250, acting in the management of three Derbyshire companies, Shearstud Limited, Easy Tools Limited and B Clarke Limited and money laundering. He pleaded guilty to these offences plus being involved in the production of cannabis and possession of illegal CS gas canisters which were found during the search.

The Insolvency Service, an executive agency sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), administers the insolvency regime, and aims to deliver and promote a range of investigation and enforcement activities both civil and criminal in nature, to support fair and open markets. We do this by effectively enforcing the statutory company and insolvency regimes, maintaining public confidence in those regimes and reducing the harm caused to victims of fraudulent activity and to the business community, including dealing with the disqualification of directors in corporate failures.

Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available.

Further information about the work of the Criminal Investigations and Prosecutions team is available

BEIS’ mission is to build a dynamic and competitive UK economy that works for all, in particular by creating the conditions for business success and promoting an open global economy. The Criminal Investigations and Prosecutions team contributes to this aim by taking action to deter fraud and to regulate the market. They investigate and prosecute a range of offences, primarily relating to personal or company insolvencies.

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