Mastermind behind nightclub raid ordered to pay back £48,700

12:58pm Friday 27th June 2008

THE MAN behind an "inside" faked nightclub takings robbery must pay back £48,700 by which he is deemed to have benefited from his criminal activities.

David Simpson, who is serving a total of seven years and three months behind bars, must pay the agreed sum under the Proceeds of Crime Act within six months, or risk an 18-month extension to the sentence.

But a further £40,789 remains outstanding from the total amount of his accepted "ill-gotten gains" and will hang over Simpson should he come into money on his release from prison.

All the sums were agreed at a Proceeds of Crime hearing at Durham Crown Court on Monday, following a lengthy investigation into Simpson's financial dealings and assets, since he was sentenced for several offences, in March last year.

It included what started as the apparent robbery of the manager of the former DH1 nightclub in North Road, Durham, in October 2005.

A total of £37,691 in takings removed from the safe was never recovered but Simpson, considered the "mastermind"

behind the plot, and 35-yearold Warren Hodgson were jailed in March after admitting conspiracy to burgle.

The former manager, 24- year-old Max Rauber, initially claimed to have been overpowered and tied up by masked gunmen at his home, before being forced to hand over keys to his car and to the club.

But it emerged Rauber was "reluctantly" coerced into taking part in the conspiracy by Simpson, and he went on to make full admissions.

Rauber, 24, now living back in his native south Wales, was given a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, after he also admitted conspiracy to burgle.

Hodgson, 35, of Linden Mews, Langley Park, who received a nine- month prison sentence, has already been ordered to pay £4,206 under the Proceeds of Crime procedure.

Part of the sentence on Simpson, of Front Street, Framwellgate Moor, was for unconnected arson and drugs offences.

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