A GANGSTER’s girlfriend who transferred thousands of pounds of his ill-gotten criminal cash to Dubai has been hauled back before a court.

Annie Webster, from Latchford, repeatedly transferred money and even flew out to the United Arab Emirates in order to deposit cash on behalf of her partner Shawn O’Malley.

He was jailed for 18 years in September over a shooting carried out on behalf of Warrington’s former most wanted man Leon Cullen, as well as a sickening torture ordeal which saw the victims attacked with an axe and hammers.

An investigation into the former incident by Greater Manchester Police, codenamed Operation Longridge and centring on O’Malley, led to raids at Webster’s home on Cumberland Street in December 2019 and March 2020.

Despite claiming to be unemployed, officers discovered several Western Union money transfer receipts in her name, as well as an Emirates flight boarding pass and a receipt from a United Arab Emirates legal consultancy.

The now 26-year-old had sent a total of £6,066.85 to the United Arab Emirates, including 5,000 UAE dirhams which she had deposited in person into a Dubai bank.

Webster later pleaded guilty to money laundering and was handed a two-year community order at Bolton Crown Court in June last year.

Warrington Guardian:

But the mum-of-one failed to attend two appointments with probation as part of this sentence in September and November 2021.

She admitted breaching a community order at Liverpool Crown Court this morning, Thursday.

Defence barrister Kate Morley told the court that her client had missed the sessions due to childcare issues and because she had been forced to isolate after her mum had tested positive for Covid-19, but failed to inform the authorities on both occasions.

The mum-of-one has so far completed five days of a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 25 days imposed last summer.

Ms Morley added: “While she should have engaged with probation and picked up the phone to inform them, she didn’t and she apologises for that.

“She has reengaged and obtained employment in a bar at weekends, and she hasn’t committed any offences since.”

Webster was fined £150, a sum which is to be paid within six months.

Sentencing, judge Robert Trevor-Jones said: “I’m sure that when you were sentenced to this community order you would have been told what would happen if you failed to comply with it.

“Here you are now because of that.

“I have the power to revoke that order and resentence you to imprisonment.

“I’m not going to take that course today because this is your first conviction and your first breach, and you have a six-year-old son.

“These are matters that may well have prevented me from taking another course today, but they’re not necessarily going to be able to help you again if you come back for a second breach.

“You have engaged again, I suspect because you were about to end up in crown court.

“If you do continue to do that, that will be the end of it.”

O’Malley – of Withers Avenue in Orford – was locked up by the same court last year after admitting two counts of inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent, two counts of false imprisonment, possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Warrington Guardian:

He plotted a shooting carried out on Cullen’s behalf after a row with another organised crime group, which saw gunshots fired at a house in Bolton in September 2019.

The self-loading pistol used in the attack and a quantity of cocaine were then planted in a rival’s car before an anonymous tip-off was made to the police.

Then, in September 2020, he was part of a gang who tortured two men who were suspected of having stolen drugs from a cannabis farm during a horrific five-hour ordeal at the rural site in Garswood.

O’Malley pointed a gun at the pair and threatened to shoot them and their families before the victims were struck with weapons including a sledgehammer, a clawhammer and a wrench.

One was hit in the kneecaps with a hammer and struck in the leg with a pickaxe before a liquid, believed to be petrol or acid, was pour over both.

The second man also had a cigarette stubbed out in an open found.

O’Malley was previously jailed for six years alongside Cullen in 2012, having helped to organise his cocaine supply network, before being caged for a further two years in 2017 for further drug dealing offences.

Cullen, formerly of Honister Avenue in Orford, was locked up for 22-and-a-half years at Liverpool Crown Court in May last year after admitting conspiracy to supply firearms and cocaine.

Warrington Guardian:

He had been on the run for nearly two years before being captured in Dubai in January 2020.