The Iceman: The Rise and Fall of a Crime Lord

by Wilson, Jim

  ‘Why don’t we take a run down and see that place?’ he says because Walter says it would be stunning for flats – absolutely stunning. So I says to Willie the-night, ‘Let’s get all the money in place because if I wanted to buy that place we would need to put it in the now.’ The money we generated, the income from the garage, would hopefully pay the loan for this place or whatever – if we could get planning permission.

  Willie says to me that Walter says to him, ‘Listen, buy that – it’s going into liquidation and it’s a going concern.’ That’s what he said to me there. ‘Why don’t we take a run down and see that?’ he says. He says you need to go and see it during the day. You want to take a run down at the weekend or if you wanted to take a run down with him tomorrow then you could do that. See what it’s like. Just got to keep looking.

  AB: Well, I could run down with him tomorrow because you’re going to be tied up all day and I’ve got . . .

  Here the men begin discussing one of their petrol stations where the leaseholder is apparently obstructing their plans to sell.

  JS: He knows, he knows. He’ll phone him tomorrow.

  AB: I’ll just go. I’ll go and nudge them around tomorrow.

  JS: I don’t think he’s there much. I’ve never seen him the last couple of weeks.

  AB: I think he just goes in very early and gets out, doesn’t he? He didn’t do us any favours with the surveyor on getting the re-valuation done. He was talking it down, saying it’s garbage, shite takings – this, that and the other. Basically, the guy rang me. I said, ‘Listen, he’s at it because he wanted to get his hands on the place and that’s not going to happen.’ So I sent him a copy of the lease and he’s talked his figures down for gas sales and that. We’ve got the valuations coming in at three-twenty [£320,000] as it is.

  JS: Fuck him.

  AB: He’s no’ getting . . .

  JS: He’s not getting it anyway. He’s fucked himself. He’s just blew himself out of the water. He’s just a stupid wee man.

  AB: Greedy.

  JS: He’ll just need to pay through – pay the money he owes and pay the next couple of years.

  AB: His rent goes up again in June.

  JS: Aye, well, just speak to him.

  AB: And the lease has got another two years to run. He told me he was looking for a five-year lease ’cos he wanted to put a spa in there.

  JS: Just give him a fuckin’ five-year lease.

  AB: He hasn’t come back to me with a proposal. These are the things I said to him in an e-mail. Y’know, come back to me with a proposal and tell me about the Shell station ’cos he seemed to be in the know about it. ’Cos I can’t . . . I’ve been all over Shell’s website and I can’t get any information about even where to look about their properties.

  The men then discuss difficulties in locating a Shell station that they have been told is up for sale in Glasgow. They go on to discuss more property deals and the merging of three firms into one business worth £1 million. Stevenson reveals he plans to start buying property in Edinburgh.

  JS: It’ll be in one of they thingwies.

  AB: What the agents?

  JS: Aye.

  AB: I was just on the Shell site. That’s all I’ve been on.

  JS: Naw, they won’t tell you.

  AB: Well, they don’t even have a page to go to on their estates or anything – properties . . .

  JS: Do you not put it in under petrol stations for sale in the UK – Glasgow area?

  AB: Looked into everything. I’ve looked into everything.

  JS: Maybe he’s just talking a lot of shite.

  AB: See we could turn that Viking round as well and make that start earning money.

  JS: First you need to get a valuation on it. ’Cos it’s not worth anything as a business.

  AB: The only way we can do this merger is on a property valuation.

  JS: Aye, aye.

  AB: That’s the only way it can be done. It can be done by the issuing of shares and credits with directors’ loan accounts so that you don’t attract any tax – capital gains tax. You know it’s just a property transaction but we still need to do it. We got to generate income so I mean the garage is generating income – that’s got to generate income for the group.

  So that means we have to get a hold of the business and turn it around, let the property, sort the vans out and everything. But that’s not hard. Well, I won’t bore you with all that tonight. Shall I ring Willie in the morning and arrange to go down to Helensburgh and look at that flat?

  JS: Aye

  AB: I’ve got my camera with me so I can take a few snaps. It’s closed down now, has it?

  JS: I don’t know, Tony. It was Willie that came up with it.

  AB: Does he do training in the morning?

  JS: Aye, have you got his number?

  AB: Well, I haven’t got my phones with me. If you see him, ask him what time he’ll be available. He’ll probably be in his bed now, won’t he? Watching telly.

  JS: It’ll be the afternoon he’ll go down. Take his number.

  AB: I’ll give him a ring tomorrow, then go down and look at that. I’ve got to see the auditors and the accountants ’cos they’ve got some of the paperwork that you and I need to go over together. I’m meeting them on Tuesday. Also their tax consultant, who’s given me the formula to put all this together. Between them, they’re saying we should set up a holding company. That’s got to be done. There’ll be some tax to pay on shares, share transfers, and their fees will come to about three and a half grand to do it all, put it all in place, which is not a lot. What about Ronnie’s house? Do you want me to get a mortgage for that?

  JS: Aye, we’ll need to, won’t we?

  AB: Yeah.

  They begin to talk about buying flats and then Stevenson is told the seller of one property is reluctant.

  JS: What about that one next door?

  AB: I haven’t even started on that yet. I want to get that one first. You’re probably looking at about two-twenty to two-twenty-five [£225,000] for that plus costs.

  JS: If he doesn’t sell it? Well, he will sell it. He’ll sell it all right or we’ll start pouring paint over it, spray-paint the windows. It’ll be the worst mistake if he doesn’t sell it. There’s nothing worse than getting your wee windows smashed now and again. Or a big window smashed. I’m looking for somewhere, anyway. What do you think?

  AB: What I was going to suggest is we lease that. Lease it, you know, all proper and kosher. And I’ll lease this one off you.

  JS: Aye.

  AB: You know, pay you rent for this one ’cos you don’t want to get rid of this do you?

  There is the sound of a dog panting.

  JS: I’m trying to get it out of her name, actually.

  AB: Is it hard?

  JS: Naw, there’s a few probs. There’s a few down the stairs for sale.

  AB: I see there’s a sold sign downstairs.

  JS: Aye that sold in a day.

  AB (to the dog): You’re in a bad way. You’re in a bad way, mate.

  JS: I’m actually waiting on a price for six flats up in East Kilbride but they’ve no’ got back to us. Need to get back to the boy. Apparently he’s making about twenty grand off each of them – it’s a fuckin’ steal.

  AB: So, with the fusion, the merger of all three different assets, you’ve got about one-point-one million [£1.1 million] there.

  JS: Aye, easy.

  AB: Bought and paid for. It’s a good lever.

  JS: For what?

  AB: You’ve got the asset value there so you’d be able to raise mortgage finance no problem at all.

  JS: Oh, fuck, aye. No problem, no bother whatsoever. I’ll tell you one thing. See that fuckin’ Edinburgh, on that Leith waterfront. When that development finishes . . . absolutely frightening.

  AB: Is it? Have you been down and had a look?

  JS: Aye, spent a day in Edinburgh. I didn’t know what like the market was but there’s Barratt doing a two-bedroom at o
ne-eight-five [£185,000]. Trinity . . . where’s Trinity in Edinburgh? Anyway the boy’s got a meeting with Barratt who does a lot of business with him and I told him twenty – twenty per cent. I don’t want anything less than twenty per cent off the market value of the house. So I reckon, when the development’s finished, that’s when we should cash them in. The people would be selling if you get thirty grand off each unit. For talking’s sake, if you bought three off that development, three in that, four in that – so, if the house is on at one-eight-five, Barratt give you the cash back at one-twenty.

  Say we use a hundred grand for the four properties, twenty-five on each property. The properties are one-eight-five so you’ve got a mortgage of one-sixty but Barratt actually give you back thirty or forty grand so you can either leave it in the property equity or you can take it out, so you’ve no’ put anything in but it still looks as if you’re still paying the one-eight-five. So when you go to sell it at a later date, you’ve no’ paid like you’ve got thirty grand off it. You’ve no’ paid one-fifty on paper – you’ve paid one-eight-five or whatever it was.

  AB: You pay the taxes on one-eight-five?

  JS: Aye, so at the end of the day when you go to sell it when the development’s finished, then you’ve fuckin’ won a watch, haven’t you?

  AB: Aye.

  JS: It was the boy that was explaining ’cos that’s all he does, see – he goes and buys twenty and thirty at a time so I’ve been firing him up there ’cos he says there’s six in East Kilbride at the corner of the Whirlies [a roundabout] and they’re doing one-three-two [£132,000]. He says, ‘Jamie, if I can get something off them, then I think, in hindsight, go for the six of them.’ Then ‘Wait,’ he says, ‘and wait ’cos I’ve went in and they’re really good value for money.’

  AB: Where’s that? In East Kilbride?

  JS: Just at the Whirlies. Good renting potential as well. Just need to get a good rent, a good agent.

  AB: There’s plenty of good agents around at the moment.

  JS: Naw, letting agents.

  AB: We could do our own factoring, couldn’t we?

  JS: Aye, no bother. There’s four flats – I’ve gied them away there to Gerard [Carbin] in Castlemilk. Four flats in the centre of Castlemilk. Three of them are leased out – two-seventy, two-seventy, three hundred [£270 and £300 per month]. The other one wasn’t leased ’cos the people got put out. It’s cost eighty grand for the four of them. Eighty thousand. The guy’s taking fifteen under the table which made them sixty-five. It’s got rental income of fucking twelve hundred quid or something. Fuck’s sake, you couldn’t whack that.

  AB: I must say that’s a pretty good return.

  JS: That’s good. Fuck’s sake, five year and you’re getting your money back. The social would fill them with people. You’d get three hundred quid off the social, two-seventy for one bedroom, three hundred for two.

  AB: Guaranteed.

  JS: It’s just actually going out and looking – finding it.

  AB: Have you got furnishings?

  JS: What?

  AB: Have you got furnishings as well or will the tenants get their own furniture?

  JS: I don’t know. I think there’s furniture in them. Fuck, it doesn’t take much to furnish a house now. A furnished flat is just a . . .

  AB: A grand to furnish a flat – carpets, bed.

  JS: Get carpets. Jim’s got all that wood.

  AB: I’ve been trying to sell that for him but he won’t come back to me with details. Harry wants to buy that off him.

  JS: I seen the wood in Focus for twenty pound. I think he’s just trying to get his money back. Stupid-looking twat.

  AB: Yeah but he’s got some partner or other that’s involved and he’s got it all stashed somewhere, hasn’t he?

  JS: I don’t know. I knew he was trying to sell it. Somebody was wanting it at fourteen quid a square metre.

  AB: He’ll be doing well to get that. He’ll be doing very well to get that off Harry. Harry will probably pay him a tenner. I’ve knocked back that Rockwood offer. They’ve come back with an offer.

  JS: For what?

  AB: Troon. Four-twenty [£420,000].

  JS: Which has planning?

  AB: Yeah so I just said your offer has no merit – forget it. I spoke to Wallace about it – he reckoned he’d have to pay us between six-fifty and eight hundred [£650,000–£800,000] for that to make it worth our while so I just knocked him back.

  JS: I think we paid too much for that.

  AB: Things all stack up. Figures all stack up. We’re getting a good wage out of that.

  JS: Aye, I reckon I’ll get fuckin’ one-six-five [£165,000] anyway.

  AB: Well, it’s two years ago. Local estate agent priced those at one-five-six [£156,000] – small two-beds, one-five-six each – two years ago. Probably value’s gone up in that area – probably fifteen per cent in that intervening period. They only got two penthouses on top.

  JS: Two-twenty [£220,000], you’d get for them. So we’ve done all right.

  AB: I’m going to get down the road. I’ll ring Willie tomorrow.

  JS: I’ll get you down. Fuckin’ like an oven in here.

  There’s the sound of a door closing and a TV in the background.

  40

  Doing Time

  ‘Anyone with money can appreciate jewels and gemstones; it takes someone with refinement to appreciate a fine timepiece.’ This is an old saying of Asian watch collectors. While the refinement of gang boss Stevenson is arguable, there can be no debate that, for a few years, he was among Scotland’s most extravagant and discerning horologists. Officers searching his home and the homes of others that were raided in the Folklore busts of September 2006 found more than forty luxury watches. In fact, he had bought a dozen more and his collection, which included many of the rarest and most prestigious models on the market, was scattered around his safe houses. In total, they would be valued at more than £307,000.

  One detective recalling the scramble of organised criminals to clamber through loopholes in the Proceeds of Crime Act (PoCA) says many invested in high-end jewellery and watches as a way of hiding and washing their dirty money.

  For a time, it was thought to be one way of doing it. Going into a jewellers and buying watches that would maintain or increase in value over the years seemed a relatively safe and straightforward way of getting rid of the banknotes while keeping the investment.

  Stevenson was already trading in jewels and watches through Amsterdam to help clean his money but you have to remember that, when the Proceeds of Crime Act came in, these guys basically went out and got a copy. They knew what it was meant to do but knew laws have loopholes and they were going to find them. The run on luxury watches was part of that process.

  These men have not managed to do what they do over a sustained period of time without adapting to changing circumstances. It is part of their business, part of what they do. They are constantly aware of new opportunities, new ways of sourcing their drugs, new ways of hiding their money. PoCA meant there was an urgency but most of them were confident there would be ways around it and made it their priority to find them. They did not believe for a moment, the game was up.

  Criminals at Stevenson’s level will never go near their drugs. You wouldn’t expect the chief executive of Nike to be loading trainers on to the back of a van. But, while they can stay at arm’s length from the product, they have to get close to the profit – literally piles and piles of notes. Their big challenge is how to spend that money safely. And that’s where PoCA comes in.

  The millionaire gangsters, who were splashing out £23.60 for a copy of the act from Her Majesty’s Stationary Office, also had expert help in locating possible loopholes from their legal and financial advisers. A senior police officer, with years of experience investigating organised crime, said:

  They have lawyers and accountants who are aware of what they are and where their money is coming from. They don’t ask because they don’t need to and
don’t want to hear the answer. But they will also have been asked to look at PoCA and offer their hypothetical advice to a hypothetical client who may or may not have an interest in concealing the proceeds of crime.

  They have tried a number of things to wash their money. Cash businesses with a high turnover of small cash transactions is one. The watches were another.

  The market in luxury watches has boomed in the last two decades. In 2006, a rose gold Patek Philippe sold at Sotheby’s in New York for £500,000. The world record was set at the same auction house in 1999 when a Patek Philippe watch, commissioned by financier Henry Graves Jnr, went for £6 million.

  For decades, pocket watches were the only ones worth collecting but the auction houses and dealers have seen prices climb dramatically for post-war wristwatches made by the world’s most famous brands. The big three – Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin – continue to command the highest prices but buyers of Breguet, Rolex, and Cartier have also seen their investment in chronometry soar in value.

  Stevenson and Carbin showed good taste or had good advice in amassing a collection that featured watches made by Audemars Piguet, Rolex, Dior and Cartier. Often buying from their favourite jewellers, Mappin & Webb in Glasgow’s Buchanan Street and Strang’s, in the affluent southside suburb of Newton Mearns, their shopping spree between December 2003 and September 2006 would include some of the most famous and expensive timepieces ever made.

  The Rolex Daytona, one of the models seized by officers in Stevenson’s home, is one of the world’s most sought-after watches. Worn by Hollywood celebrities and racing drivers, the watch is one of the ultimate and hard-to-find status symbols. Stevenson paid £10,340 but the Daytona’s value, in the soaring market in watches, was unlikely to decrease.