Carl Johnson's property empire in ruins as final home is repossessed

The seven other houses in the city once owned by the 53-year-old had already been progressively seized as his fortunes nosedived.

And now representatives of the mortgage company have changed the locks and slapped a repossession order on his final property – built on the site of his mother's home in Bushbury Road, Fallings Park.

They were accompanied by three members of West Midlands Police Regional Asset Recovery Team on Friday in case of trouble, but the house was deserted.

It looked very different from the glory days when it was estimated to be worth at least £220,000 and sported bullet proof glass.

All the furniture and some fixtures and fittings had been removed.

It is also believed to be in negative equity after shortfalls caused by the sale of some of his other repossessed properties were added to the outstanding mortgage on the house.

The final repossession came just weeks after Johnson was returned to jail following his failure to beat a deadline to repay money he had earned from crime.

He was sent to prison for 452 days by Birmingham magistrates over the outstanding £44,305 debt but this is not believed to be directly linked to the seizure of his house.

He and his brother Tony, 54, were each jailed for two years and nine months in July 2012 for money laundering cash from a £34m tax fraud.

The mastermind of the scam paid the pair around £2.4m for their help, it was said.

They drove around in expensive cars including a Lamborghini Murcielago, Bentley Continental, Porsche Cayenne and Ferrari Spider but the brothers claimed their wealth came from running a legitimate security business – called Unit 11.

The company paid nothing in tax to the Revenue and Customs.

Both had a Proceeds of Crime (POCA) restraint order put on their assets following their arrest on February 21, 2008.

This froze bank accounts – but allowed living expenses – and prevented the sale of property.

POCA proceedings, aimed at stopping villains making money from breaking the law, decided Carl benefited from the tax fraud to the tune of £1,536,067 and it was agreed that the amount which he could actually repay was £118,925 and a confiscation order was made on April 30, 2014.

The total sum was later reduced to £71,550.

By the start of this month, Carl had only paid £30,029 of the money ordered by the court. The authorities ran out of patience waiting for the balance and sent him to jail in default.

His brother Tony was not involved in the proceedings because he has met his financial responsibilities.

He was ruled to have had benefited by £918,359 from the tax scam and was ordered to repay £220,216 of this.