Crime Correspondent: Langley

Police raided Katie Armstrong’s Langley home they discovered 85 plants in her loft with a street value of £25,000.

police raided Katie Armstrong’s Langley home they discovered 85 plants in her loft with a street value of £25,000.The 25-year-old said she did not cultivate the cannabis and was just a patsy for the dealers, who threatened to harm her family if she told police about the illegal farm.But Armstrong still pleaded guilty to production of the class C drug at Bolton Crown Court because she did not want to name the gang behind the scheme.Recorder Ashley Murray, sentencing her to a suspended jail term on Monday, said: "The cultivation of illegal drugs on this level is clearly a very serious matter. The drug has many long-term social and personal consequences. You claim to have been under some sort of pressure but you have not named the people who participated in that activity. Your actions were wholly unacceptable. I do accept that you had no previous understanding of drugs and you acted with the influence of others who cultivated these plants. You are the very type of patsy that people of this nature are looking for." The court heard how police found the drugs haul at Armstrong’s Carrock Walk home in October last year.Further investigations uncovered that upto £3,500 of electricity had been illegally diverted to the property to power hydroponic equipment used to grow the cannabis.Rachel Widdicombe, defending, said Armstrong - a single mum who cares for her mentally-ill mother - was relieved when officers arrived because she could finally speak up.Miss Widdicombe said: "Threats of violence were made against her and her family. She was told that the police may be able to protect her but they wouldn’t be able to protect her mother, father and family. She felt (going along with) it was the only way she could protect her family but accepts now that she could have gone to the police."Armstrong – who has no previous convictions - was sentenced to six months in jail suspended for 18 months. She has to complete 100 hours unpaid work and pay £100 costs. She also risks losing her housing association home in a repossession hearing later in the year

Police raided Katie Armstrong’s Langley home they discovered 85 plants in her loft with a street value of £25,000.

police raided Katie Armstrong’s Langley home they discovered 85 plants in her loft with a street value of £25,000.The 25-year-old said she d...

John Joyce was arrested by detectives

John Joyce, 28, was arrested by detectives after five weeks of revenge gun attacks by rival gangs on the Langley estate. A house used by Joyce was the scene of one shooting.A member of Middleton family has been jailed for money laundering following a police investigation into a spate of 'tit-for-tat' shootings<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUg7FLmBYoxLa4HmJrH_9QUdxvz7-WD8b45WUfzqheW3Hy9FryRGx1kV3XY6nbPwJWPpya9rDb2v0zfTizEmh57juZxbTkQtRO3yZ7cP0G1p8a6MmaFJXGFENvxCR4KRc3jYgiyUMGw10/s1600-h/joyce.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5165148839268881234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUg7FLmBYoxLa4HmJrH_9QUdxvz7-WD8b45WUfzqheW3Hy9FryRGx1kV3XY6nbPwJWPpya9rDb2v0zfTizEmh57juZxbTkQtRO3yZ7cP0G1p8a6MmaFJXGFENvxCR4KRc3jYgiyUMGw10/s400/joyce.jpg" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a> He was not charged in connection with the firearm offences but police inquiries discovered he was living beyond his legitimate means. Bolton Crown Court heard how Joyce, despite being on unemployment and housing benefit, had accumulated around £80,000 which he had deposited in bank accounts under his own name and that of his girlfriend, Stephanie Taylor, 27. Detectives described how he had flaunted the money on a lavish lifestyle, buying convertible cars, jewellery and designer clothes. During police interviews, Joyce, of Martindale Crescent, Langley, said he had made the cash through organising and fighting in bare knuckle brawls among the travelling community, benefit fraud, tax evasion and illegally dealing cars using the false name of 'John Ward'. Keith Harrison, defending, said Joyce had also generated cash from a burger van which he had since sold. Joyce had already pleaded guilty to six charges of money laundering when he was given a 17-month jail term last Thursday, 3 January. Judge Elliot Knopf, sentencing, said: "The police thought there might have been much more involved, that the accumulation of this money might have been the result of more serious activities which do not show in this case, but it is dishonest activity in any event. Only an immediate custodial sentence can be justified." Joyce, a boxing coach on Langley, was arrested at his girlfriend's house on the estate’s Thirlmere Drive in June 2006 following the series of gun attacks that spring, when five houses and the Kings Arms pub were peppered with bullets from rival factions. Officers found more than £15,000 in cash, jewellery, and designer goods at the house, including a mountain bike worth £1,000. They also seized two cars, one a Peugeot 307 convertible, collectively worth more than £25,000. During court proceedings, Stephanie Taylor admitted to receiving the Peugeot convertible as a gift, so was given a 12-month conditional discharge for money laundering. Police are now hoping the rest of the expensive assets will be confiscated at a hearing in February. Detective Constable John Townsend, of Greater Manchester Police’s Financial Investigation Unit, said: "We were determined to make the streets of Langley safer in whatever way we could. Joyce had no legitimate income but flaunted his wealth. "The giving and receiving of a gift funded by crime is a crime in itself and GMP is determined to use the law to effectively deal with such people, reassuring communities that crime does not pay."

John Joyce was arrested by detectives

John Joyce, 28, was arrested by detectives after five weeks of revenge gun attacks by rival gangs on the Langley estate. A house used by Joy...