Gangster's ex-wife avoids jail after claiming she didn't know drugs funded her lifestyle
A GANGSTER’S ex-wife has escaped jail after claiming she did not know her luxury lifestyle was funded by her former husband’s drug money.
Rachel Duffy avoided prison after claiming she was unaware how her lifestyle funded
Rachel Duffy, 37, earned just £13,000 a year from a small business she ran, yet lived in a £450,000 mansion, put her two children in a private school and drove a Porsche.
She celebrated her court victory with a glass of wine in a swanky restaurant – even though a judge ordered her to pay back £50,000 in ill-gotten gains.
Police began investigating her after arresting former spouse Thomas Duffy, 42, over the seizure of heroin and cocaine.
Rachel Duffy, of Alkrington, Cheshire, admitted converting criminal property at Manchester Crown Court, but claimed she had been unaware of her husband’s activities.
She celebrated her court victory with a glass of wine in a swanky restaurant
The defendant was living a lifestyle unfunded by the legitimate work she was doing
The couple split in January, 2015.
She was given a 14-month jail term suspended for a year.
Judge Martin Steiger QC said: "The defendant was living a lifestyle unfunded by the legitimate work she was doing.
Rachel Duffy was ordered to pay back £50,000 in ill-gotten gains
"I must bear in mind the degree of involvement and that she was under some domestic pressure and her husband was treating her badly for a long period of time.
"Given the nature of this offence it can be suspended, not least because she is a mother of young children."
Her ex-husband was jailed for 10 years for drug dealing at an earlier hearing.