Wife of jailed Wolverhampton drugs baron who used £9k laundered money on new kitchen waits to hear fate

Hayley Wilson secretly took some of the cash to husband Karl in Jamaica where he had fled to a luxury seaside villa as police closed in on his operation that sold over two kilos of heroin a month in the Scottish city.

The blonde 50-year-old former prostitute and £100-a-night escort also used dirty money to pay for a £9,000 fitted kitchen at her home in Yew Tree Lane, Tettenhall and had £360 in tell tale Scottish notes when police swooped on the property.

Mother of three Mrs Wilson had been given £40,000 from a bundle of money 'the size of a rugby ball' handed by her husband to his cousin Leon Samuels before leaving the UK, it was said at the Wolverhampton Crown Court trial that led to her conviction.

She claimed to know nothing of her husband's criminal behaviour but Mr Michael Burrows QC, prosecuting, told the court: "Hayley Wilson is the wife of a major drug dealer who made a lot of money from cocaine and heroin. The money spent on the kitchen units, found in her possession and taken by her to Jamaica was all from his dealing in drugs. She knew or, at the very least, would have suspected that."

She has admitted breaking a court order banning the disposal of assets by selling a Mercedes for £11,000 when short of cash after her husband ran away to the Caribbean.

Mr Samuels, who lives in West Bromwich, said of his drug dealer cousin's wife: "He controlled her. He always wanted his own way and she did not have much say in it. You could tell she was afraid of him."

Two kilos of heroin bought for £40,000 by Karl Wilson in Wolverhampton in December 2004 was all sold in Aberdeen before Christmas Day, it was said. On another occasion he and two other men shared £75,000 cash between them at a house in Wolverhampton after it had been collected in Aberdeen.

Wilson, who had previous convictions for wounding with intent, possession of an offensive weapon and rape, fled to his five bedroom villa by the sea in Jamaica in December 2008 when police found a large stash of cocaine and heroin in Aberdeen shortly after it had been delivered from Wolverhampton by his couriers.

It was almost six years before he could be extradited back to face justice in this country and in January this year he was jailed for 16 years after pleading guilty to conspiring to supply heroin and cocaine between March 2002 and February 2009.

He and his wife married in 1992 after first 'getting together' in 1989. Mrs Wilson was a sex worker in London during the 1990s and was convicted of prostitution. She had £120,000 saved in a building society account in June 2001 which was withdrawn soon afterwards, the court was told.

Almost £54,000 of this was spent buying the Mercedes SL320 she has now admitting committing a contempt of court by selling for £11,000 in February 2009, two months after her husband ran away to the Caribbean, the jury heard. She said she gave the rest of the cash to her husband, it was said.

When she was arrested last October police found over £10,000 in her house which she said was savings from her work as a £100-a-night escort advertising her services in Bargain Pages.

Mrs Wilson was taken in for questioning at Bilston Street police station in Wolverhampton but her interview was not recorded because the tape failed. Officers on the case were not told of the break down until six days later. Mrs Wilson from Yew Tree Lane declined to give evidence to the jury during her trial.

They took two hours 18 minutes to unanimously find Mrs Wilson her guilty of the three offences she had denied: Converting or transferring money from crime by using it to purchase, and have installed, kitchen units between August 1 and December 31 2004; being in possession of £360 of Scottish bank notes that were the proceeds of crime on February 4 2009 and in or about June 2010 assisted Karl Wilson to retain criminal property by taking money from his criminal conduct to him in Jamaica.

Judge Martin Walsh granted her bail while a pre sentence report was prepared but warned: "The fact that I am doing this is no indication of what will happen to you."

Proceedings aimed at clawing back proceeds of crime from Mrs Wilson and her husband are also be held later.