Alan Causer (Image: Facebook) Get the latest Scottish crime and courts news sent straight to your inbox with our daily Criminal Record newsletter More Newsletters Subscribe Please enter a valid email Something went wrong, please try again later. More Newsletters We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. More info Thank you for subscribing! We have more newsletters Show me See Our Privacy Notice See Our Privacy Notice × Group 28 Get the latest Scottish crime and courts news sent straight to your inbox with our daily Criminal Record newsletter Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later. Sign Up No thanks, close We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. More info × Group 28 Thank you for subscribing! We have more newsletters Show Me No thanks, close See our Privacy Notice A drug dealer's mum was caught "red handed" after cops found her sitting in bed next to large bundles of money. Nearly £500,000 was seized by officers searching the home of Ian Shacklady and Gillian Melville during the National Crime Agency raid. A joint probe with Merseyside
police discovered the organised crime group - run by Melville’s son, Alan Causer - had trafficked hundreds of kilos of heroin and cocaine . The couple’s home on Marchbank Road in Skelmersdale was searched on September 15, 2021 - revealing the cash was only the tip of the iceberg.
Liverpool Crown Court heard Melville was found "sitting in a bed in one of the bedrooms with neatly stacked piles of cash on the bed to one side of her". Henry Riding, prosecuting, described the 66-year-old as having been "caught red handed" with "multiple bags containing large quantities of cash on the floor at her feet”. Read More Related Articles Scots driver who killed elderly dad 'should have seen him crossing road' Read More Related Articles Scots social worker jailed after he raped
Women then threatened to have their children removed Monies totalling £481,375 were seized from "various locations" around the property. The fingerprints of another conspirator, John Germaine, were found on a number of the bags of cash, the Liverpool Echo reports. Shacklady was subsequently found to have sent him a message five and a half hours prior to the raid, which said: "John, can you pick some elastic bands up? I haven't got any left. Thanks." Four kilos of cannabis with an estimated street value of £40,000 were also discovered, as were two "ledgers". Ian Shacklady (Image: Merseyside Police) Join the Daily Record's
WhatsApp community here and get the latest news sent straight to your messages. They were described as a "meticulous record of their drug dealing activities" which were "consistent with the supply and distribution of at least 360kg of cocaine and 25kg of heroin", as well as the movement of more than £1.4m in cash over the previous few months. Causer's fingerprints were present on these books. Mr Riding added: "They indicated that the half a million pounds recovered from Mr Shacklady and Ms Melville's house was, if not just the tip of an iceberg, only a small proportion of the monies generated by the activities of this organised crime group." When officers searched Shacklady's white Peugeot Partner van they found a "fairly sophisticated system" had been installed within the rear of the vehicle below the floorboards. This consisted of a hidden switch which revealed a secret compartment for stashing illicit goods. Automatic number plate recognition cameras meanwhile captured the van "travelling all over the north of England". This included trips to Huyton, Manchester, Grimsby, Derby, Nottingham and the Barnard Castle, Bishop Auckland and Darlington areas of County Durham. Police then visited Germaine's storage unit on Ringtail Road in Burscough on September 28 2021 and found 9kg of "high purity" cocaine. The 35-year-old, of Ormskirk, previously received nine years and two months in relation to this seizure in May 2022 after being convicted of possession of the class A drug and cannabis with intent to supply and possession of criminal property. A fifth defendant, Daniel Heeley, was identified via surveillance undertaken as part of the operation. The 31-year-old - of Rylstone Drive in Heysham, Lancashire - was known as "Morc" in the gang's ledgers - a reference to the Morecambe area where he was based and had a safehouse. John Germaine (Image: Merseyside Police) He was shown to have used three different phone numbers between May and September 2021, and was found to have been in contact with Shacklady, Causer and Germaine during 394 calls lasting a total of nearly six hours and 45 minutes. Heeley was said to have been "supplied class A drugs in wholesale, kilogram amounts" by his co-conspirators, with the same van having travelled to the seaside town on 14 occasions. Under interview, Shacklady gave a prepared statement claiming "he had allowed a person who he wasn't prepared to name to store items at his address, believing it was only money" and that he "had no idea there were drugs as well". The 67-year-old also said that Melville "had no involvement in the matter". When Germaine was interviewed, he "began by saying 'I knew this was coming'". He stated that he had been in debt "to the tune of several thousands pounds to persons in Liverpool connected with someone whose jaw he had broken in a fight in a nightclub" and then "began making drug and cash runs" around May 2021, for which he was paid £150 a time and saw him travel as far afield as Portsmouth. "Leading light" Causer, of Skelmersdale, meanwhile gave no comment to detectives. When interviewed, his mum said none of the seized cash was hers - other than £6,000 located within her handbag and £11,400 in another bag, which she described as being her "life savings". How to get the latest crime news with the Daily Record The Daily Record and Sunday Mail have always been at the forefront when it comes to reporting crime in Scotland. But did you know all the ways you can stay informed of the top crime and courts headlines? Sign up to our daily Criminal Record Newsletter . Follow our brand new
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Facebook page . Get our specialised Crime web alerts on your desktop by clicking 'Keep me updated' in the pop-up box whenever you click on to a Crime story on our website. We share live crime news and exclusive court stories as well as features and columns on historical cases, keeping our readers informed and updated across the country. Healey told police he had "frequently changed his phone number because he and his wife had an on-off relationship", and she had been "jealous that he was seeing a girlfriend". He added he had "previously used drugs including cocaine and ecstasy on a night out" but "denied any involvement in the supply of drugs". When shown pictures of co-defendants, he stated he did not recognise Shacklady, Melville or Germaine but identified Causer - who is also known as Alan Melville - as "Melv or Merv", and said he had purchased an Audi A7 from him in June 2021 for £8,500 in cash. Heely said he had originally met the 45-year-old at Catts Gym in Orrell, Wigan, which he "occasionally attended". Shacklady has a total of four previous for seven offences, including receiving 33 months for conspiracy to supply cocaine in October 2022 in relation to "EncroChat material". Julian Nutter, defending, told the court on his behalf: "You can see his age, and time in
prison for him is a different experience than for younger men. "He does not appear to have been the stockholder in the enterprise. He is a relatively simply man, and he was recruited for his driving skills." Nick Cockrell, representing dad-of-three Germaine, meanwhile said: "Since he has been in custody, he has essentially been nothing short of a model prisoner - he has used his time constructively to date, and will continue to do so. He is remorseful for his offending." Causer has two previous convictions for two offences in 1995 and 2009. His counsel Charles Lander said: "Mr Causer is under no illusion that he is going to receive a significant custodial sentence. Even if the court views him as the head of the defendants in the dock, that is still different to being the head of the chain of the organised crime group. "These people are often the people who do not live in this county and who stay away. They have their human tentacles outside. Those at the very top would not be attending the scenes of deliveries - those people at the very top distance themselves from that. Do they store large amount of money at a family home? They do not. "It is not said that he was living an extravagant lifestyle. He is not jetting off anywhere, and there is no evidence of him living a luxurious lifestyle. It might support that there was a spiral in this defendant's life, the breakdown of this defendant's marriage. "He is someone who had a good work record and who worked for many years. There are references that speak well of him - it is a surprise to them that he got involved in criminality of this level." Melville, who used the assistance of a walker in court, has no previous convictions. Stuart Nolan said on her behalf: "It certainly was not motivated by personal gain and is certainly a one-off offence with little to no planning. She was fundamentally of hitherto good character. She is quite frail. "She has regularly been admitted to hospital. Due to her mental health, she has been vulnerable for some time. Her physical health has been deteriorating for some time. She is a frail woman facing a custodial sentence which she views with great trepidation." Heeley's criminal record shows three entries for four offences between 2007 and 2011. Ian Morris, defending the father-of-six, told the court: "His involvement in this activity was during a period of personal turmoil. He is keen to express his remorse. Clearly, with hindsight, he should never have been involved in this in the first place. "He has had time to regret his actions. He not only apologises to the court, but is deeply anxious about the loss that he has caused to his family. His loss will be great when he is deprived of the time he could have spent with them. He has to accept the consequences of his guilt." Shacklady admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine, possession of criminal property and possession of cannabis. He was jailed for 10-and-a-half years. Germaine and Causer pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine and possession of criminal property. They received 11 years and eight months and 18 years respectively. Heeley admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine. He was imprisoned for 15 years and three months. Melville pleaded guilty to possession of criminal property. She received a 23-month imprisonment suspended for 18 months, plus a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 15 days and a 12-month mental health treatment requirement. Sentencing this morning, Judge Denis Watson KC said: "This was a very active and high volume business that was being run as a business focussing on the supply of high quality cocaine, and on occasion heroin as well. It supplied to a wide variety of geographical locations. Top news stories today Scot baby killer battered behind bars Video shows Scots toddler vaping Scots told 'learn to live with seagulls' Gambling Scots mum embezzled £30k "This business had been flourishing over a period of three-and-a-half months. The quantities in the ledgers demonstrate that this was a major operation, even by the scale of recent EncroChat cases." The judge told Causer: "You were organising and directing the buying and selling of drugs on a commercial scale. Those were, in reality, your ledgers which revealed an insight into the tenure and productivity of the conspiracy." Turning to Melville, Judge Watson said: "You must have known exactly what was going on. Your son kept his ledgers at your home and he kept the ill-gotten gains at your address too. You knew precisely what your partner and son were up to and how long they had been doing it. "Even though you were involved on one day, it is not overstating it to say that you did not have to be asked twice - you acted with your eyes open. You are someone of good character. You have poor health to say the very least. You are, it seems, blind in one eye. "You have COPD, you have sciatica, you have had multiple heart surgeries and your mental health is suffering as well." Causer hugged and kiss his mum in the dock before being led to the cells. He also told his supporters in the public gallery: "See yous soon." Don't miss the latest news from around
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