A convicted time-share fraudster has been forced to pay back nearly half a million pounds under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Arthur Goddard, a former director of Graig Park Village Ltd, Dyserth was this month forced to payback £451,651 he had conned from 50 people in a holiday home fraud.
Goddard, 60, along with his sales manager Alan Hill, 51, were sentenced to two and a half years in November 2009 for their role in the fraud. The crime involved offering free breaks at their holiday park in North Wales to the owners of existing timeshares, and then pressured their victims into paying for part-exchange rights that were worthless.
Between May and December 2007, the pair colluded to sell timeshares at the 94 lodges at Dyserth’s Graig Park that Goddard and his brother David, 55, had built between 1996 and 2003.
Judge John Rogers QC told the pair at the time that they had “tainted the good reputation of the tourist industry in North Wales”.
A financial investigation carried out by Denbighshire Trading Standards and North Wales Police found the total benefit of Goddard’s crime was deemed to be £451,651, which he had to pay by the end of July or face further time in jail.
Detective Sergeant Pete Jackson of the Financial Investigation Unit said: “Confiscation orders require offenders to pay back money they have made through their criminal activities. If Goddard had failed to do so, he would have faced a further jail term and the debt would still stand. In other words they can’t trade off the debt by going to prison.
“Removing the profit from crime, in addition to any sentence imposed by the court, is not only morally right but it serves to remove negative role models from society. If young people see criminals enjoying a lifestyle that they haven’t got legitimately then they might be more easily persuaded to follow in their footsteps. Putting the criminals in prison and taking away their lifestyle shows that crime is not a good career move.
Several dissatisfied clients complained to their local trading standards officials in Durham, Salford and Lancashire and Denbighshire County Council started a investigation in August 2007.
The Council’s Chief Trading Standards investigator Philip Richards was praised at the trial for his “dogged persistence” which provided overwhelming evidence upon which the jury convicted them both.
“It’s just not right that decent law abiding people have to tolerate criminals enjoying a standard of living that they are not entitled to. More often than not that lifestyle has been achieved at someone else’s expense. The public want to know that in addition to any punishment handed out by the court that, whenever possible, offenders are going to be deprived of any profit that they have made from their criminal activities.”
North Wales Criminal Justice Board manager Mike Mullis said it has proved to be an effective partnership system: “This is a great example of agencies working together to take the cash out of crime. Criminals should not benefit from their activities and as part of the Justice System in North Wales we have a responsibility to enforce the orders that are made.”
There are other criminals living off the proceeds of crime in North Wales then ring Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
