Crime boss Jamie “Iceman” Stevenson faces a legal order to stop him running his criminal empire after he gets out of jail. The Glasgow godfather will be taken from his prison cell into the High Court in Edinburgh court on Wednesday, where prosecutors will instigate proceedings for a Serious Crime Prevention Order (SCPO).
The measure is designed to prevent organised crime figures from moving money or running communications with associates after their release. Police believe Stevenson’s ingrained criminality would see him seek to maintain his drugs empire from behind bars via accomplices.
And they believe that even after serving a 20 year sentence for running a £76million cocaine importation racket, Stevenson, 57, would return to the only lifestyle he knows – even in his seventies. But an SCPO would prevent him living the life of a normal citizen, hampering his ability to move money and to communicate freely with others on his release.
A source said: “People like Stevenson have an inherent tendency to keep pulling the strings in crime groups, even from behind bars. There is a battle to stop that within prisons but the SCPO can be a very real spanner in the works after they get out, as everything has to be done through proxies and others who will have to be prepared to take the rap if further offences come to light.”
Last month Stevenson pled guilty mid-trial at the High Court in Glasgow to directing others to commit a serious offence and being involved in serious organised crime. The Court of Appeal in Edinburgh yesterday has received notification that Stevenson will appeal his sentence.
Five other members of the drugs gang were also jailed last week. Stevenson’s stepson Gerard Carbin, 45, got seven years, David Bilsland, 68, Lloyd Cross, 32, and Paul Bowes, 53, six years each, while Ryan McPhee, 34, was locked up for four years.
The Record previously reported how Stevenson could have got up to a third off his sentence if he had pled guilty earlier. Now, unless his appeal is successful, he will be expected to spend two thirds of the sentence behind bars.
An SCPO can be made on application by the Lord Advocate in Scotland for anyone who has been involved in serious crime. An SCPO can slap a ban on a crook associating with other known gangsters, even in social situations.
It can ban gangsters from travelling to certain places and force them to notify police about any financial affairs. An order can last for up to five years and breach of its conditions is a criminal offence, subject to a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment.
Last year it was revealed that 90 individuals have had SCPOs imposed on them by Scottish courts. Most were gangsters, 58 of whom were still in prison at the time and 32 were being actively monitored in the community.
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