RIVERS: JAIL FOR BEAUTICIAN WHO ENJOYED LUXURY LIFE OFF COCAINE LORD’S PROFITS
The glamorous girlfriend of a champagne-swilling drug lord sobbed as she was jailed for a year today (Fri) for helping him launder thousands of pounds through her beauty business.
Amy Rivers, 25, allowed her millionaire partner William Forster to deposit more than £2,500 of drug money into the salon’s accounts each day using falsified customer records.
She shared a £1m apartment in Chigwell, Essex, with Forster, 30, where police found the fridge stocked with bottles of £4,500 Dom Perignon champagne and a wardrobe packed with his and hers designer clothes.
The couple enjoyed a luxury 10-day holiday in Dubai and splashed out on a Mercedes SLK, a £64,000 Range Rover and a £40,000 watch. Forster also paid £11,000 for flying lessons.
Forster, 30, was jailed for 12 years earlier this month for his part in a scheme to flood the streets with £48million of cocaine.
In total he paid £27,000 into Lumiere Beauty and Tanning, Broadway Woodford, during the 18 days Rivers was named as a director, Snaresbrook Crown Court has heard.
Judge John Lafferty said that Rivers was a ‘decent, hard working woman’ with her own legitimate business before allowing her self to be dragged into money laundering.
‘People who are dealing drugs can only do so if there are ways they can clean their ill-gotten gains,’ he said.
‘You allowed yourself to be involved in that.’
He added: ‘You had no reason to doubt that this was money that had derived from drugs trades.’
Rivers was appointed as a director after Forster’s accomplice, James MacDonald, 28, was arrested in connection with the drugs plot in September last year.
MacDonald and then Forster were arrested after they were linked to a shipment of almost three quarters of a kilogram of pure cocaine found in the back of a transit van driven by James Chew and Matthew Davies, both 24, in August 2010.
Officers went on to discover around 6kg of pure cocaine at various address linked to the gang and enough cutting agent to produce 450kg of cocaine for sale on the street.
Rivers became a director of the company on September 25, 2010, and had also purported to work for the beauty company, the court heard.
Prosecutor Christopher Gillespie said: ‘Most of these services were bogus and intended to mask the drug money that was being laundered through the business.’
He added: ‘A forensic accountant has analysed the books of Lumiere and concluded that fictitious client records have been created in order to hide the movement of monies through the business.’
Rivers was arrested in December 2010 after police investigating Forster and MacDonald discovered the link to the beauty salon.
Rivers pleaded guilty to concealing criminal property in March, but later claimed she did not know the money came from the sale of cocaine, though she admits she suspected it.
Today, her lawyer Scott Ivill argued that she was a ‘decent woman’ who had been put under pressure by her boyfriend.
She had not been involved in the conspiracy to set up the company as a front, nor had she initially realised the huge sums of illicit money were coming through the account,’ he said.
‘She has actually carried on with that company since the arrests,’ he said.
Mr Ivill argued that Rivers had learned her lesson and would not re-offend, saying: ‘These proceedings have had a devastating effect on her.’
The judge said: ‘Prior to being involved in the offences for which I have to sentence you, you were a decent, hard working young woman, who was kind and helpful to with whom you came into contact.
‘But nonetheless, you allowed yourself to become involved, at a very limited level, in a very serious criminal enterprise.
Rivers, who was living with her drug dealer boyfriend, was also ‘deriving benefit’ from his drug business, which had ‘yielded millions,’ said the judge.
Rivers sobbed throughout the sentencing.
On July 1, Forster, of (Flat 12) Goldsmith House, Brandesbury Square, Chigwell, was sentenced to 12 years after he pleaded guilty to the supply Class A drugs.
Macdonald, of (Chapter Three) Old House Lane, in Roydon, Essex was also jailed for 12 years for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs.
Chew, of (1) The Gables, in Ongar, was jailed earlier this year for nine years.
Davies, of (8) Wakerley Close, in Beckton, east London, was jailed for six years.
Rivers, of (47) Barnado Gardens, in Davenport Street, Shadwell, east London, had initially been due for sentence alongside Forster but her case was adjourned because she was involved in a car accident.
A confiscation hearing to strip the trio of their illegally gained cash is listed for a mention on September 30 this year.
ENDS
