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29
Jul 2022
Ex-Harrogate guest house owner Yoko Banks given court ultimatum
Former Harrogate guest house owner Yoko Banks was told today she would not be allowed to change solicitors again after the latest attempt to recover any gains from her crime was adjourned.
Banks, 74, of Scargill Road, was jailed for three-and-a-half years in August 2021 for renting out her properties to an Albanian drug gang for “industrial” cannabis production “in the expectation of significant profit".
She appeared at Leeds Crown Court today via a link from New Hall Prison in West Yorkshire for a confiscation hearing.
It was the latest in a series of attempts to recover any financial gain under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
A previous hearing in May was postponed when the court heard Banks intended to appeal her conviction and wanted to leave her legal team in favour of another firm of solicitors.
At the hearing before that in January, the Crown said it was not yet in a position to make a financial confiscation ruling because Banks’ defence team needed more time to delve into her “complicated” accounts and extensive “property empire”.
The court heard today she intended to change solicitors again but Judge Christopher Batty told her there was "absolutely no way" he would permit this.
He told her she either had to stick with current solicitor Sian Barber or "deal with it by yourself".
Read more:
- Harrogate guest house owner was 'facilitator' in £500k cannabis racket
- Harrogate guest house owner plans to appeal cannabis racket conviction
Ms Barber said she had spoken with Banks, who has been granted legal aid, for the first time this morning and had 600 pages of notes to go through.
She added she was due to meet Banks again next month and therefore requested an adjournment.
In adjourning the case until November 4, Judge Batty said it had been a "wretched hearing".
Michael Bosomworth, prosecuting, said:
London gang
Banks was sentenced in August 2021, after the court heard that a London gang had invested tens of thousands of pounds into three cannabis factories at Banks’ properties on Alexandra Road, Woodlands Road and Somerset Road near Harrogate town centre.
The criminals had even dug a trench outside the three-storey Edwardian villa on Alexandra Road through which they fed electricity cables to the house to power the “highly sophisticated” cultivation system and bypass the electricity grid.
Their plot unravelled when police were called to the five-bedroom villa on September 26, 2020, after reports of a “disturbance” in the street involving what appeared to be two rival gangs vying for the cannabis farm.
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