Tess Vaughan, the partner of police killer and EncroChat money launderer Timmy Donovan, has admitted possessing criminal cash. Vaughan, 35, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday where she was due to stand trial accused of three charges of possessing criminal property.
But Vaughan pleaded guilty to two of the three charges on the first day of the trial and will return to the same court on September 22 to be sentenced. A confiscation order for her criminal profits will also be made.
Donovan's criminal history
Vaughan is the long-term partner of Donovan, who is currently serving more than 14 years in prison for supplying 23.7kg of cocaine, 1kg of heroin and laundering at least £10m through services offered on the EncroChat network.
Donovan, 41, became an infamous name on Merseyside after he was convicted of the manslaughter of PC Neil Doyle, who was attacked in Liverpool city centre while out on a Christmas night out in 2014. After he was released on licence Donovan became part of the gang who were sentenced at Manchester Crown Court over the drug and money laundering conspiracy in February last year.
Gary Cathcart, head of financial investigation at the National Crime Agency (NCA), said at the time: "Donovan is a dangerous individual who returned to criminality as soon as he left prison."
Family connections
The police killer was sentenced alongside James Vaughan, the older brother of his partner Tess, who was previously on the NCA's most wanted fugitives list. The siblings, plus older brother Stephen Jnr, are the children of former Chester City FC owner Stephen. Stephen Snr was also chairman of Widnes Vikings, but was later disqualified from acting as the director of any company because of his involvement in a £500,000 VAT fraud.
Stephen Snr and Jnr, who was once on the books at Liverpool and a former Chester City captain, were later involved in an incident that saw the former fracture a police officer's cheek. And Stephen found himself back in the dock in 2016 after he was convicted of perverting the course of justice by allowing his sister's beau Donovan to use his Mercedes to escape to Germany in the hours after PC Doyle was killed.
The ECHO previously reported how Donovan and Andrew Taylor taunted PC Doyle by saying "evening officer", before warning the copper and his off-duty colleagues "not to front me". Newly-wed PC Doyle was hit with a "piledriver punch" while his colleague PC Robert Marshall was knocked to the ground and stamped on.
Drug and money laundering conspiracy
Donovan fled the UK before he was apprehended by German police and returned back to the UK. He received a sentence of six years and 10 months before his release on licence. Donovan's lawyer told the court last year that he was "immensely remorseful and regretful" about his manslaughter conviction. But instead of repaying to society he sought out a life of crime using an EncroChat device in a failed bid to shield himself from the law.
Using the handles "Astralcleaner" and "Legendarytooth", Donovan was the "leading player" in the separate drug and money laundering conspiracies. The scale of the money laundering plot was evidence by a spreadsheet, created by Donovan, which included information that more than £3.4m was owed "in eng".
The NCA said when Donovan was arrested, "almost every door" in his house on Walsingham Road, Childwall - the same address Tess Vaughan provided to the court - was specially reinforced. Donovan was convicted along with Aaron O'Sullivan, who helped him supply cocaine for the crime group and launder the money. Donovan chased debts via O'Sullivan who arranged the collection of money through couriers Kenneth Kean and Paul Duncan.
James Vaughan collected, stored and counted money for Donovan, before he fled to Spain. Meanwhile Christopher Roper worked at the Wavertree Car Centre, where he stored large amounts of the criminal cash and arranged for the transfers of cash in return for a fee.
Upcoming hearings
Donovan is subject to an application for both a serious crime prevention order (SCPO) and a proceeds of crime confiscation application. Both hearings will be held at Manchester Crown Court on January 27 next year. The NCA also confirmed a contested forfeiture hearing relating to £285,000 seized from a business premises associated with Roper in Liverpool on December 17.
The particulars of the two possessing criminal property charges that Tess Vaughan has admitted are that "between January 2019 and September 2023, she was in possession of cash which she knew or suspected constituted or represented benefit from criminal conduct", and "between September 2021 and September 2023, she was in possession of and used criminal property which she knew or suspected constituted or represented benefit from criminal conduct".
