A wealthy Macclesfield businessman who laundered £68,000 of drugs money through his motor firm has been jailed for four years.
Paul Wedgbury, 40, of Old School House, Bosley, Macclesfield, was found guilty of filtering money from convicted drug dealer Paul Pedley through the accounts of Cheshire Motorcycle Salvage, on Poole Street, Macclesfield, after a trial at Chester Crown Court .
Wedgbury, who no longer owns the business, was sentenced on Friday, November 26.
Judge Roger Dutton said: "You have participated in the laundering of money that had been obtained from drug users in Macclesfield by Paul Pedley, who was a substantial dealer in Class A and Class B drugs."
He told Wedgbury: "You very quickly got involved in a complex little scheme using your business to create a highly fictitious job for Paul Pedley, paying him three times as much as any other employee and only slightly less than yourself, the managing director.
"Mr Pedley never did a day's work for you in his life.
"You knew how big a drug dealer Paul Pedley was and you knew it perfectly well.
"£68,000 is no mean amount."
Defending Wedgbury, Peter Clark said: "He is not someone you might describe as a career criminal. He is not somebody who was living ostentatiously from criminal activity for years and years. There is no suggestion the business was established as a front for money laundering."
