A vile paedophile who posed as a teenager online and was found in a hotel room with two missing girls is among the criminals locked up in Greater Manchester in the last seven days.
An Audi driver who led police on two high-speed chases through the streets of Bolton while disqualified from driving has also been put behind bars, along with a former Manchester City executive who stole more than £100,000 to pay for her wedding.
Prison sentences are handed out to the worst offenders each week and Manchester Evening News reporters are in court to cover the most serious cases.
Read more: Thug beat his girlfriend bloody as she slept in her own bed
Here are some of the criminals locked up in Greater Manchester this week...
Pregnant Manchester City executive jailed for stealing £100,000 from the club to pay for her wedding
A former Manchester City executive who stole more than £100,000 from the club to pay for her wedding has been jailed. Fiona Barclay, 33, worked as a business development manager for City within the football club's hospitality department, earning up to £30,000 a year.
But now Barclay, who is pregnant, is beginning an 18 month jail sentence after being caught swindling cash from the club. After being discovered, she told police she'd used her ill-gotten gains to pay for her wedding and buy 'gifts' for her husband and family.
Manchester Crown Court heard that Barclay was rumbled after accountants flagged a suspicious transaction, when a refund of £25,000 had been issued in March last year. She admitted depositing £15,000 of the sum into her own bank account, and paid it back to the club. But the club investigated further and discovered that Barclay had been siphoning money from the club since June 2019.
In total she had stolen more than £104,000. City remain £89,000 out of pocket, after Barclay paid back the £15,000. Barclay faced internal disciplinary proceedings at the club and was sacked in March last year.
She pleaded guilty to an offence of fraud by abuse of position. Barclay, of Drum Farm Lane, Falkirk, will serve half of her 18 month sentence in prison. She will now be the subject of an investigation under the Proceeds of Crime Act, to discover whether any of her ill-gotten gains can be clawed back.
Vile paedophile found in hotel room with two missing girls
A 'calculated' sex offender was arrested by police at a hotel where he was putting up two missing girls. Colin Smith was detained by officers when he returned to the room in Bury after the teenagers 'made contact with someone they could trust', police said.
The girls had both been reported as missing at the time. The 59-year-old was subsequently charged with 11 offences against five victims including offences of meeting a child following sexual grooming, making and distributing indecent images of children and sexual activity with a child. He would plie his victims with alcohol and pose as a teenager on social media, officers said.
After his arrest on August 19, 2020, police seized Smith's devices and found extreme pornography, indecent images of children and evidence of more grooming victims. At Minshull Street Crown Court on Tuesday (November 15), Smith, of Everton Street, Darwen, was jailed for 12 years after admitting the 11 charges.
Victim left with horror injuries after trio walk up to him and batter him
A teenager who was punched '35 times' as he waited for an Uber home feared he'd be killed over a bag. The 18-year-old, who was stood with a friend, was battered and robbed of a £300 Burberry bag after being approached by three men on Portland Street near Piccadilly Gardens.
Latif Sanyang, Ryan Speed and an unknown third man walked over to them, Manchester Crown Court heard. Originally they appeared friendly, and talked about football. The unknown man put his hand around the victim's shoulder, offered him cocaine - which he refused - before commenting on the victim's bag.
The teenager was then wrestled into a headlock and Sanyang, 23, began pummelling him in the face, prosecutor David Lees said. As his friend tried to intervene, Speed, 27, threatened him by lifting up his tracksuit top to reveal a knife.
The victim gave up the bag and sought help from a nearby police officer. He suffered graphic injuries, including cuts to his face, swelling, loose teeth and a black eye. Sanyang, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to robbery and two counts of breaching a criminal behaviour order. Speed, of Crispin Road, Wythenshawe, pleaded guilty to robbery, theft and fraud.
Both will serve at least two-thirds of a six year jail term, before they can be considered for release by the Parole Board. They were also handed an extra three years on licence.
'Disgraceful' man is jailed for an 'arrogant and selfish' bit of driving in an Audi
An Audi driver has been jailed after leading cops on two high-speed chases through the streets of Bolton. Craig Sloane drove at 90mph on a 30mph road during the first pursuit and went through four red lights on the second - which took place around 13 months later, while he was still on bail for the original offence.
A judge at Bolton Crown Court slammed the 32-year-old’s driving as ‘arrogant’ and ‘selfish’ as he sentenced him to 22 months imprisonment on Tuesday (November 15). During the first incident, on July 1 2021, Sloane accelerated to three times' the speed limit, was driving on the wrong side of the road and almost smashed into an articulated lorry, prosecution barrister Keith Jones told the court.
He carried on driving and only stopped when he crashed into a tree. He tried to run away but was arrested and told officers he was ‘sorry’, before making full admissions during his interview.
But he got behind the wheel of a car again on the afternoon of August 3 2022. On this occasion, as he was followed by police Sloane reached speeds of 80 mph and drove through four red traffic light, Mr Jones told the court.
Sloane, of Tonge Moor Road, Bolton, pleaded guilty to two counts of dangerous driving, driving without insurance, driving while disqualified, and breach of a suspended sentence. Judge Tom Gilbart jailed Sloane for 22 months and banned him from driving for four years.
Dealer caught in his underwear as police raided his home
Drug dealer Lucas Dodd was caught in his underwear as police raided his home. Dodd had hastily hidden a large stash of cocaine and heroin behind a communal washing machine.
Police also found over £8,000 in cash, along with three burner phones with messages about drug dealing. Dodd, 23, from Little Hulton, said he wanted to pay back the money he had borrowed after he was released from his last prison sentence and said drug dealing was ‘an effective way of doing that’.
Jailing him for over four years for possession with intent to supply class A drugs and money laundering offences, Judge Hilary Manley told him: “You knew you could make money from being a drug dealer - I have no doubt you knew the risks and you took them.
And the judge warned Dodd: "Carry on like this after being released and you can expect much longer sentences."
'Animal savage' bit off woman's nose in horrifying fight
A judge described Claire Bold's crime as an act of 'animal savagery'. She bit the end of a woman's noise off after the pair had become embroiled in a fight.
Both had inflicted minor injuries on each other, but raging Bold, 38, believed that the woman had taken her credit card and followed her to a friend's house. The fight resumed and 38-year-old Bold clamped her teeth onto the woman's nose before biting on it.
She bit the end of the woman's nose off, before spitting it out on the floor. The victim was in 'excruciating' pain and was left bleeding profusely.
She has had operations including a skin graft, but has been left permanently disfigured. People stare at her in the street and she has been subjected to vile abuse, being called 'piggy', Manchester Crown Court heard.
Weeks after the appalling incident, Bold left another woman permanently disfigured, after hitting her to the face with a handheld mirror. Bold stormed out of court as the judge laid bare the facts of her shocking crimes.
She received a 10 year sentence, comprising of six years in jail and an extra four years on licence. She will serve two-thirds of her six year sentence in prison.
'Good Samaritan' kidnapped and sexually assaulted vulnerable teenage girl
A predator who pretended to be a Good Samaritan kidnapped and sexually assaulted a young woman. Michael Owen, 34, approached his intoxicated victim at about 5am outside a nightclub in Leigh.
He had approached her and helped her to her feet, under the premise that he was looking out for her. In a statement Greater Manchester Police said: "He had then helped her into a taxi, telling the driver to drop them off at his home on Bridgewater Street.
"Once there, the girl reported she remembered waking up in Owen’s bed partially clothed and screaming to go home but was told by Owen that he was just looking after her."
The victim said she next remembered someone banging on Owen’s front door. The caller was her father, who had obtained the address from the taxi driver, who had answered the phone the youngster had dropped in his taxi, when her father had rung it.
The court heard how Owen had called 999 to report someone banging on his front door, at the same time the father was ringing the police to report his daughter was being kept against her will.
When police attended a few minutes later and the circumstances were determined, Owen was immediately arrested and taken into custody for questioning. The youngster was taken to hospital for examination.
Jailing Owen for seven-and-a-half years behind bars, the Judge also deemed him to be a dangerous offender and handed down an extended licence period of four years, with a lifetime restraining order against the victim.
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