A young mum who stashed £24,000 of suspected drug money under a bed has had her licence to sell alcohol revoked, despite telling councillors she had “made a stupid mistake”.
Members of Falkirk Council’s licensing board heard that Lucy Jane Macaule y, who lives in Camelon, had been given a six-month restriction of liberty order after police searched her house and found £24,120 in a shoe box under her bed.
The search was carried out last March following a tip-off and she was convicted on June 16, 2021 of a contravention of the proceeds of crime act.
Ms Macauley said she had not been working at the time as she was looking after her son and she had agreed to look after the cash “to make ends meet”.
The ‘third party’ she held the cash for has never been identified.
When sentenced, she was spared jail as she had a young child to look after but she was given a six-month restriction of liberty order and later all of the cash was confiscated.
At the licensing board hearing today (Wednesday), Sergeant Liam Livingstone told the board that her actions had put her at risk.
He said: “By her actions, Ms Macauley is indebted to an unknown third party, strongly suspected to be an organised crime group or an individual involved in organised crime.
“By her actions, she has placed herself seriously at risk of corruption which with a connection to any licensed premises gives serious cause for concern.”
Miss Macauley told the board that she needed her personal licence to work in the future when her son was older.
She told the board: “When this all happened, I had no intention of getting myself into trouble at all – I was just trying to make ends meet for my son.
“I knew what I done wasn’t right and I paid the consequence for it but I’m just trying to better my life now after making a very silly mistake.
“I’m relying on my personal licence for future jobs – I’ve not worked in the past couple of years because I’ve been in the house looking after my son, hence the reason I done what I done.”
“I’ve always worked in bars and stuff. I’ve got an SVQ in health and social care and I’ve done caring but obviously with this happening I’m not going to be able to do that.”
After consideration, the convener of the Licensing Board, Niall Coleman said: “This is a very serious matter which we’ve heard some mitigating circumstances for.
“However, I do feel that it’s necessary under the licensing objective of preventing crime and disorder that Miss Macauley has her personal licence revoked.
“I feel that this will provide more secure employment for her going forward.”
