By Gordon Berry

A BID BY Scottish ministers to retain over £16,500 seized at two houses in north-east Fife as proceeds of crime has been continued at Cupar after Sheriff George Evans was told one of the men named in the action has recently been murdered in Peru.

The development came during a short civil court hearing as part of an ongoing case brought by Scottish ministers through the Civil Recovery Unit in Edinburgh.

The action has been brought under Section 298 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, legislation which saw over a million pounds seized by ministers in a nine month period last year.

The ministers, represented in court by Martin Collins of the Civil Recovery Unit, have named John Wishart, formerly of Freuchie, and James Harlow, of Kirkcaldy, who for a time lived in Cupar and Leuchars.

Both of them were in Wishart’s house at Freuchie on the night in May 2005 when it was raided by Fife police officers who were looking drugs and firearms.

Court papers claim both men had three figure cash sums on them, and money was found in several different locations in the house, along with drugs paraphernalia.

Well over £3000 was also found in a safe at a house where Harlow was living in Leuchars.

Since then Mr Wishart has been sentenced to over five years’ imprisonment at the High Court in Edinburgh, a sentence he is still serving, but the court papers could not be served on Mr Harlow.

Addressing the court and asking for a continuation, Mr Collins said that Mr Harlow, who was described as a criminal with a 2002 High Court conviction and four year sentence for drugs offences, had suffered a “most obnoxious and violent demise” when he was murdered in South America.

He had been released from prison on licence less than two years into his sentence of four years and it is understood that he eventually left Fife for Spain before going to Peru.

The papers claimed he had been actively involved in the supply of controlled substances in Fife and elsewhere, and at one point told police he would “flood north east Fife with drugs” if he was charged with anything.

Answers lodged in court by representatives of Mr Harlow claim the money did not come from drug dealing, but from sources including the sale of a house in Kirkcaldy, and the sale of motor vehicles.

It was also claimed the cash was not in the bank because he did not want creditors to get hold of it.

Yesterday the British Embassy in Lima said it is aware of Mr Harlow’s death, but is unable to make further comment for reasons of consular confidentiality and the Data Protection Act.

Fife Police said they had not been involved, and that any family support would have come from the Foreign Office.

On January 8 The Courier carried a death notice for Mr Harlow which stated he had died suddenly in Peru.