Traveller couple jailed for £2m 'Irish terror' fraud

Travelelrs Dennis and Bianca McGinley targeted the farmer along with four other victims from Staffordshire and the West Country.

Leeds Crown Court heard they relentlessly exploited the vulnerability of farmers and business people who had become involved in business transactions with the travelling community.

The biggest loser was a farmer from the outskirts of York, not named in court, who was conned out of 1 million, some of which went to buy luxury cars including a Lamborghini.

North Yorkshire Police said the victims had been involved in business deals with travellers and Dennis McGinley then came along making demands, purporting to represent interests associated with a "three-lettered organisation" from Northern Ireland.

Detectives said those involved were terrified by Dennis McGinley. One father and son, who lost 850,000, did not even speak to each other about what was happening, believing the family would be under direct threat if they spoke.

Two companies were stripped of their assets and closed, police said, and victims were forced to travel around the UK making cash and banking payments at Dennis McGinley's direction.

The McGinleys admitted conspiracy to defraud between March 1, 2006 and March 18, 2009.

Dennis McGinley, 30, was sentenced to eight years in prison and his wife, 25, whose maiden name is Broadway, was jailed for three-and-a-half years.

The pair, who are of no fixed address but are from the travelling community in the Taunton area of Somerset, were arrested following a joint investigation involving the North Yorkshire, Staffordshire and Avon & Somerset police forces. They were arrested in March 2009 in Chelmsford, Essex.

Sentencing the couple at Leeds Crown Court, Judge Rodney Grant told the court the conspiracy was "a carefully planned scheme ruthlessly carried out".

Det Insp Adam Harland of North Yorkshire Police, said: "When we were first confronted with the scale of these blackmails, it was hard for all those on the enquiry to understand how anyone could lose a million pounds and not make some effort to contact the police.

"However, the fear engendered in the victims by Dennis McGinley was so real that they handed over vast amounts of money, representing the benefit from a life's worth of work, rather than seek help.

"Each victim felt like an individual target, and the events had a profound effect on their health and sense of security. There may even have been a feeling that to reveal what had happened would make them appear foolish.

"Much of the money stolen remains unrecovered, and enquires are ongoing in regard to the money laundering of this money and the confiscation of the assets and restoration to the victims.

"Each of the victims has indicated the misery of the position they found themselves in, and there is every likelihood that there are similar victims currently somewhere.

"If that is the case, I would most strongly urge them to realise that they do not have to face this sort of offender alone, and that contact with their local police - either directly or through another party - can and will bring this crime to an end."