Ex-footballer James Keatings who carried out £400,000 money laundering handover released early

A former Scottish professional footballer jailed for over a year for carrying out a £400,000 money laundering handover has been released after spending only weeks behind bars.

James Keatings – once on the books as a forward for clubs including Celtic, Hearts, Hibs, St Johnstone, Dundee United, Hamilton Accies, Raith Rovers, Inverness Caley Thistle, Forfar and Tranent – was sentenced to 13 and a half months in mid September after admitting possessing and transferring criminal property.

He was due to appear from prison by video link at Falkirk Sheriff Court on Tuesday for a hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

The court heard, however, that he had been freed – subject to home detention – after serving less than two months.

He had originally been expected to be out in the new year, under existing procedures that mean prisoners serving short sentences are often released after serving 40% of their term. In Keating’s case, this should have meant around five months.

It is understood that Keetings’ mid-November release came as a result of efforts to clear space in Scotland’s overcrowded prisons.

His solicitor Brian Greig told the Proceeds of Crime hearing: “Regarding the original indictment, he was sentenced to a period of imprisonment. He was released last week, on a home detention curfew.”

Mr Greig said Keatings, of Wishaw, would have attended court in person, but was ill with “flu”.

The court was told that agreement had been reached that the profits of Keatings course of criminal conduct amounted to £390,040 – and that also was the available amount.

The sum is the “dirty money” found to have Keatings’ fingerprints and DNA on it before police arrested him earlier this year.

It is currently held by police.

The court heard that a confiscation order under the Proceeds of Crime Act would have to be delayed until next year for legal reasons.

Sheriff Wyllie Robertson ordered that a further hearing should take place on April 21 in the hope that the order can be made then.

Keatings, 33, transported heavy boxes of crime cash in a white Transit van while working as a plasterer.

He was arrested following a tip off to the National Crime Agency about a large criminal cash handover due to take place in a street in Wishaw, Lanarkshire.

Police and officers from the NCA laid wait in Young Street, Wishaw, and about 2.30pm on June 28, 2024, a white Mercedes van arrived and parked. The driver of that van was alone.

A few minutes later, Keatings appeared driving a white Ford Transit and parked next to the Mercedes.

Keatings “got out and removed two weighty boxes from his van and put them in the rear of the Mercedes”.

Inside the white Mercedes van, officers found two office boxes containing 78 bundles of notes, each of about £5,000, totalling £390,040.

Also in the boxes were a quantity of elastic bands, which turned out to have Keatings’ DNA on them.

Keatings’ finger and palm prints were found in various locations on the outside of both boxes and on the inside of the second box. His fingerprints were also on some of the banknotes.

The court heard Keatings had been drawn into crime after a hip injury at the age of 27 left him in chronic pain, and he began to play at lower and lower levels in the game before quitting and learning a trade.

Tony Graham KC, defending, said: “At the age of 30, having had a relatively promising career, it was time for him to acknowledge that he was not viable as a footballer going forward.

“He was medicated with various prescription painkillers but he did not consider they were sufficient to alleviate the pain he endured.

“Whilst the medication which he sourced was that which he would have been prescribed, he was sourcing it illicitly in quantities to allow him to self-medicate.

“An opportunity arose to be paid in medication for performing a service for moving this sum of money and this he duly did.”

It is understood that Keatings’ mid-November release came as a result of efforts to clear space in Scotland’s overcrowded prisons.

A source said: “It does seem remarkable in today’s Scotland that a man can be jailed for over a year and be allowed to walk out of the prison gates about eight weeks later.

“But although Keatings was obviously aiding heavy crime, he’s not violent and not a sex offender so he would have been a prime candidate for the free-up-space policy.”