Drug dealer's ex-girlfriend left with 535k bill

The former girlfriend of a convicted drug smuggler has been ordered to pay up more than half a million pounds after taking up residence in his Littleborough mansion, built on ill-gotten gains.

Daniella Green (born 12/7/76) of Marfield Avenue, Chadderton, Oldham, pleaded guilty to being concerned in an arrangement which she knew facilitated the retention of criminal property at Manchester Crown Court, Crown Square.

She was sentenced to six months imprisonment, suspended for two years.

She was originally the girlfriend of David Statham, a notorious drug dealer who was jailed in 2001 following a National Crime Squad investigation into the importation of £7.5 million of cannabis.

After initially escaping from custody, Statham was recaptured in the south of France and pleaded guilty to a number of offences, including drug importation from Spain to mainland UK.

Assets to the tune of £107,000 were later confiscated from Statham.

He was killed in a road traffic collision in 2006.

Statham made three failed applications for a plot of land on Higher Starring Lane in Littleborough, before Green successfully acquired it in July 2003.

By 2005, a mansion had been built, and was worth £1.2 million. Its value today is in the region of £600,000.

The police investigation uncovered evidence that following Stathams death Green had taken over the running of the house.

The same inquiry also uncovered evidence of criminality involving Green's most recent partner, Scott Baker.

Baker (born 29/8/73) of the Saddleworth Hotel, pleaded guilty to theft and was sentenced to nine months imprisonment, suspended for two years.

A director of the Saddleworth Hotel in Delph, Baker was found to have stolen £47,000 from the Saddleworth Hotel and hidden it away in a safety deposit box.

Daniella Green has been ordered to pay £535,000 within a twelve month period or face seven years in jail.

Detective Constable John Conroy said: "This has been a long, protracted criminal investigation by GMP's Money Laundering Unit.

"Not only did Daniella Green have full knowledge of Statham's criminality, and not only did it provide her with a lavish lifestyle, she acquired this property knowing that it represented criminal property and indeed took it after his death.

"It is undeniably in the public interest for us to investigate people like Daniella Green as without them organised crime would not be able to flourish.

"This house may be made up of bricks and mortar, but it was built on the foundations of criminality; I hope it reassures the public that it will now need to be sold, and the money raised will be reinvested into our communities."

A number of criminal charges against Daniella Green have been ordered to lie on file.