Mum and girlfriend of wanted Leeds drug dealer facing prison for £100,000 laundering scam
Pair helped clean cash for criminal
The mother and girlfriend of a convicted dealer could be facing a jail sentence after admitting helping to launder more than £100,000 of suspected illegally-earned cash.
L’Mel Harding is wanted by West Yorkshire Police and his where his whereabouts are unknown, but the two women could be jailed for their role in his alleged criminal empire.
Leeds Crown Court heard that his mother, 63-year-old Paulette Shand, and his partner, 27-year-old Erika Budreviciute, helped to clean the money he made, receiving huge sums of cash and then depositing it into his accounts.
Budreviciute had also initially flown to Malaga in Spain in 2021 with Harding when police wanted to arrest him, and has since met up with him since in Los Angeles, Orlando and Las Vegas while he remains on the run.
But the 30-year-old he is now wanted in connection with eight new offences, including multiple drug-dealing charges and one for possessing a firearm.
The two women appeared in court and admitted counts of conspiracy to acquire criminal property between 2019 and 2022 and conspiracy to transfer criminal property.
Prosecutor Robert Stevenson said Harding is suspected to have been involved in “large-scale supply” of Class A drugs, and both Budreviciute and Shand had financially benefited.
He said Shand would receive cash deliveries to her address and she would also transfer money to Harding or to Budreviciute.
Around £50,000 was deposited into her account.
Budreviciute had a similar role, receiving £55,000, and would often spend it on luxury items for her and Harding, including holidays.
Mr Stevenson said Harding left the UK knowing the police were “onto him”.
His latest alleged offences were uncovered after police were able to crack Encrochat - an encrypted network often used by criminals to communicate.
He was alleged to have been dealing in huge quantities of drugs worth tens of thousands of pounds.
Evidence from chats found that he had organised cash deliveries to his mother’s address.
When both Shand and Budreviciute were arrested, Budreviciute was wearing a £7,000 Rolex watch and had a £1,250 wallet in her possession.
Shand, of Green Pasture Close, Osmondthorpe, has 59 previous convictions for 118 offences, many of which are for shoplifting and stealing.
Mitigating on her behalf, Zacharias Micah said Shand had grown up in care having been abandoned at the age of four.
He said she was also a victim of domestic violence in a relationship that was so severe that Mr Micah said it was “extraordinary that she survived”.
He said she lives in a council property and works as a cleaner, which remains open to her.
Budreviciute, of Atkinson Street, Hunslet, has no previous convictions.
Mitigating, Abdul Latif-Shakoor said she had been young and naive at the time.
He said: “She did not ask too many questions but may have had her suspicions.”
He said she accepted responsibility, “exhibited remorse” and had not offended since.
Judge Kate Rayfield said she was struggling with the sentences each woman should receive and adjourned the case until this Friday, May 22.