{"id":806726,"date":"2026-10-18T16:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T16:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/806726\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T16:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T16:10:11","slug":"man-caught-with-160000-tells-court-he-was-paying-back-murdered-sons-drug-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/806726\/","title":{"rendered":"Man caught with \u00a3160,000 tells court he was paying back murdered son’s drug debt"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man caught with \u00a3160,000 of dirty money claimed he was paying back his murdered son\u2019s drug debt.<\/p>\n

John Sinclair, 58, was caught with the cash in his car as well as his home in Glasgow\u2019s Drumchapel on November 13, 2024.<\/p>\n

Sinclair\u2019s son Darren \u2018Sinky\u2019 Sinclair, 27, was stabbed in the heart by killers Joseph McIntyre and Robert Dunn in November 2018.<\/p>\n

The pair dumped Darren\u2019s body, which had suffered ten stab wounds, in wasteland near to his home.<\/p>\n

Matters arose after Darren allegedly spoke to police amid claims he was assaulted and left with a brain injury months earlier.<\/p>\n

Darren had been dubbed a \u2018grass\u2019 on graffiti sprayed in the area.<\/p>\n

McIntyre received a minimum 23-year jail term for murder, while Dunn was sentenced to 11 years for culpable homicide.<\/p>\n

John Sinclair\u2019s lawyer told a court that Darren had accumulated an \u00a318,000 drug debt before his murder.<\/p>\n

It was further stated that Sinclair was ordered to pay off what was owed, or his family would be \u201charmed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sinclair pleaded guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court to receiving and concealing criminal property as well as attempting to stop police from seizing it.<\/p>\n

The first offender was granted bail pending sentencing next month by Sheriff Lorraine Glancy, KC.<\/p>\n

The court heard that police had received intelligence that a Kia Ceed car was dropping off drugs and collecting cash.<\/p>\n

Officers stopped the vehicle, and Sinclair was found inside.<\/p>\n

After a search, two iPhones as well as cash held in supermarket shopping bags were recovered.<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Caitlin McAllister said: \u201cOn the journey to the police station, Sinclair said he was worried about the safety of his wife and grandchild.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said he had more cash and a counting machine at his home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police attended the property and found his granddaughter leaving with a suitcase.<\/p>\n

She told officers: \u201cMy gran just told me to take the suitcase \u2013 I don\u2019t know what was in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A search of the property took place, and further cash was recovered from shopping bags.<\/p>\n

Miss McAllister said: \u201cThe total amount of cash seized from the property and the car was \u00a3160,790.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abbi Sinclair, 21, and wife Karen Sinclair, 59, had their not guilty pleas accepted by the Crown.<\/p>\n

Ron Mackenna, defending, told the court: \u201cHe stated to me that his reaction to being stopped was one of relief.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis son was murdered in 2018, and one year later, someone told my client that his son had a drug debt of \u00a318,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was told that if he didn\u2019t pay the debt or assist his family would be harmed.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy client went along with this before police involvement, and he realised after a period of time that no drug debt was ever reducing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was told that it went down from \u00a318,000 to \u00a312,000 at one point.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe accepts on reflection that he could have gone to the police \u2013 he was terrified for his family and grandchildren.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"WhatsApp<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man caught with \u00a3160,000 of dirty money claimed he was paying back his murdered son\u2019s drug debt.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":806727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-806726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}