Jailed tanning salon boss who made £370,000 from drug empire must pay back £6,000

A woman who used her tanning salon as a front for an organised crime group in Leyland has been ordered to pay back some of her ill gotten gains.
Leanne DuffinLeanne Duffin
Leanne Duffin

Leanne Duffin, 31, who ran the Cosmopolitan Suntan Salon on Leyland Lane, was previously jailed for eight years for supplying class A drugs across Chorley, South Ribble and Preston.

-->READ MORE: Revealed: The sordid life of crime and drugs beneath the respectable facade Read more at: https://www.lep.co.uk/news/crime/revealed-the-sordid-life-of-crime-and-drugs-beneath-the-respectable-facade-1-8953252

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Over the years she and her drug syndicate flooded the streets of Chorley and South Ribble with cocaine and cannabis before extending to Preston, but used the tanning salon as a mask for respectability.

Leanne DuffinLeanne Duffin
Leanne Duffin

During a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing, Preston Crown Court heard Duffin, of Greenways in Standish, Wigan, benefitted to the tune of £370,120 from her crimes, but that the only assets available for the authorities to seize were worth £6,309.26.

Previosuly her father, Brian Duffin, 66, who is serving a six year jail term, was found to have benefitted to the tune of £390,763.89 from his crimes. His only assets available for the authorities to seize were worth £12.284.66.

At the time of the Duffins sentencing, the court ruled the exploitation of vulnerable young people pressurised into dealing the drugs was an aggravating feature of the case.

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Among the other gang members, Geraldine Robinson, 51, of Chapel Lane, Coppull, was sentenced to four years, Jordan Whittle, 19, of Greenways in Standish, Wigan, to three years and eight months and Kevin Hewitt, 51, of Market Street, Adlington, for 12 months.

The Duffins, Robinson and Whittle all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supplying Class A and B drugs, while Hewitt pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supplying Class B drugs.