Former Premiership footballer jailed over £400,000 money laundering handover

A former Scottish professional footballer caught carrying out a £400,000 money laundering handover has been jailed.

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

Keatings, once on the books as a forward for clubs including Celtic, Hearts, Hibs, St Johnstone, Dundee United, and Hamilton Accies, admitted possessing and transferring criminal property.

Falkirk Sheriff Court heard he 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 levels in the game before quitting altogether 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.

“It represented a considerable deterioration in his ability to earn and a consequent deterioration in his lifestyle.

“Whilst playing with senior clubs, even on basic wages such as £1,500 to £1,800 a week, there were always win bonuses and six-figure incrementals.”

Footballing career abandoned

Mr Graham said the hip problem – for which a resurfacing operation had been offered next month after a three-year wait – was coupled with a deterioration in his mental health after having had to abandon his footballing career.

Mr Graham said: “He was medicated with various prescription painkillers, but he did not consider that 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.

“He endured that pain. He was dealing with those who were able to source that medication for him without recourse to a pharmacy,

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

Arrest

Keatings was arrested earlier this year, following a tip-off last year to the National Crime Agency about a large dirty cash handover due to take place in a street in Wishaw, Lanarkshire.

The court was told that police and officers from the NCA laid wait in Young Street, Wishaw, and about 2.30pm on June 28, 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”.

Both vans then drove away. The Mercedes, driven by the other man, was then seen to park in a street – Station Road – in Dollar, Clackmannanshire. The Mercedes driver got out and went into a house. He then left again, got into a third van, this time a black Mercedes, which he drove to High Street, Glasgow, where a woman got in.

Prosecutor Alistair McDermid said the woman was carrying “a weighty polythene bag”. The van then drove back to Station Road, Dollar, where the driver was arrested.

The key to the white Mercedes was in his pocket and it was searched. Inside the white Mercedes van, officers found two office boxes containing 78 bundles of notes, each of about £5,000 – in total £390,040.

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

Keating’s 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.

Sentencing

Sheriff Christopher Shead jailed Keatings for 13 and a half months.

He said: “A custodial sentence is the only appropriate disposal.”

Keatings showed no emotion as he was led down to the cells.

He will face further proceedings in October under the Proceeds of Crime Act to seize the criminal cash.

NCA Regional Head of Investigations, Ian Thomas, said: “James Keatings moved hundreds of thousands of pounds in suspected criminal funds but what he didn’t know was OCP officers were watching his every move.

“The NCA will continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners to bring offenders like Keatings to justice and disrupt offenders and their criminality, wherever there is an opportunity to do so.”

Detective chief inspector Laura Sands, Organised Crime and Counter Terrorism Unit, added: “This investigation underlines our commitment to the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce and the country’s Serious Organised Crime Strategy.

“We will continue to work with our partner agencies to tackle this type of criminal activity and ensure those responsible face justice.

“Information and support from the public is vital to our work and I would encourage anyone with information relating to organised crime to contact us through 101.”