Shropshire Star

Jailed Shropshire businessman facing financial ruin

A respected businessman who drove a distinctive yellow Lamborghini and who was jailed for "fencing" stolen goods for a criminal gang that targeted Asian gold now faces possible financial ruin.

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Mark Bowen, 46, of Western Avenue, Whittington, near Oswestry, ran the Dog n Bone mobile repair centre in Wrexham.

He was well known in Birmingham as a seller of gold and other jewellery. Dealers remembered him turning up in his distinctive sports car.

But Mold Crown Court heard how he fenced or handled some of the proceeds of the burglary gang which last week earned him his first prison sentence.

He now faces a police investigation under the Proceeds of Crime Act where he could be forced to sell assets to repay some of the victims.

The gang broke into properties near Oswestry, North Wales and parts of the West Midlands.

Prosecuting barrister John Philpotts told the court how the defendant in June of last year showed an employee a ladies Rolex watch and later handed him an iPad which the employee took into the shop the next day.

That day, the shop was "raided" by the police who found the box containing the iPad, the ladies Rolex and another watch. That watch was later identified as having been stolen during an earlier burglary in Green Lane, Chester.

The owner also identified a Cartier watch and her husband identified a $100 Hong Kong note which had been recovered from Bowen's home.

Mobile telephones were recovered from some of the burglars which contained a number attributed to Bowen. Analysis showed that he had been in contact with two of them.

Stephen Edwards, defending, told the court that his client only handled some of the proceeds of the gang's crimes. Documentation showed that he was a respected man who ran a legitimate business.

In May last year he was approached by one of the conspirators and over six weeks received items including jewellery. He did not know the extent of the criminality that was going on and was later shocked at the extent of the burglaries.

There came a point where he had a choice to carry on or put an end to it but sadly he feared what would happen if he "pulled the plug".

Judge Niclas Parry said that to an extent it was an aggravating feature that he was a respected businessman. A man with a legitimate business with the privileges that brought would avoid the eye of suspicion, and was the perfect outlet for stolen goods, he said.

Sentencing Bowen to 27 months imprisonment, the judge said he had admitted handling stolen goods and money laundering.

A POCA timetable has been set.

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