A drug dealer linked to an international Bitcoin scam is facing a bid to claw back £800,000 of his criminal fortune.
Dale Pearson, who is serving five years in jail for drug running, had been charged with setting up a web design company to front a large-scale fraud.
Pearson was said to have scammed a £250,000 mortgage before “concealing, disguising, converting and transferring” cash and Bitcoin amounting to £789,046.64 over the course of six years.
The money laundering charges, said to be connected to serious and organised crime, were dropped when Pearson admitted dealing cocaine and ketamine.
In 2018, Pearson faced a 12-charge indictment in court alleging he moved vast sums of money around and used a fraudulent mortgage to buy a luxury six-bedroom property in Dundee.
Prosecutors alleged he laundered cash through various bank accounts and converted £25,900.91 into the online cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
Pearson was alleged to have transferred £57,015.71 out of the country to banks and businesses in Pakistan, China, Dubai and Hong Kong.
In a complex scheme Pearson was alleged to have set up a business and website in the name of Pearson Web Design to front the fraud.
The Crown alleged that Pearson Web Design did not undertake the business of web design and that no VAT returns were ever filed, and that the business was “a front to explain income.”
One of the charges alleged that Pearson “did conceal, disguise, convert and transfer criminal property” - namely “sums of money and bitcoins” amounting to £789,046.64 between1 September 2011 and 31 August 2017.
He was eventually convicted of drug dealing after Parcelforce staff found bags of white powder stuffed inside a board game being sent to a Dundee address.
The drugs were recovered in 2015 and found to have a potential street value of nearly £90,000. He also admitted having other drugs and was jailed for five years.
Pearson told Dundee Sheriff Court yesterday he intended to conduct his own case against the Crown’s action to recover £800,000 from him under Proceeds of Crime legislation.
However, Sheriff George Way said he would give Pearson the opportunity to find a lawyer who could represent his interests during the scheduled proof in June.
Sheriff Way said: “A confiscation proof is about the law. The suggestion I have been given is that you lost your legal representation.
“It’s not for me to say anything about how you lost your lawyer but it is not the kind of case that a person would normally deal with on their own.
“This is a complicated matter and features some complex tests that even some lawyers get wrong on occasion.
“This is all about tests involving criminal lifestyle and all sorts of things like that. There are lawyers who don’t entirely understand the legislation.
“You need to think hard about getting a lawyer because this has gone on so long that I really can’t put it off any longer.
“You have the absolute right to defend yourself and I am not saying you can’t, but it is difficult.”
Pearson, who previously had a lawyer but parted company with them, originally said he would conduct his own defence, but said he would not speak to a lawyer before the case calls again.
