EXCLUSIVE: 247 Kettles £1.1m watch heist - full trial report including 'links to Maurice Sines and Kinahans' and Oliver White inquest delayed

The inquest into the death of £1.1m watch robbery victim Oliver White has been adjourned after allegations of the store being a "front for organised crime" emerged in court.

Oliver White, 27, (below left) manager of the 247 Kettles store in Richmond, took his own life a day after CCTV of the raid, showing him being tied up, circulated on social media.

An inquest into his death was listed to go ahead in December but was pulled at the eleventh hour after the criminal trial of three men accused of being involved in the robbery ended in November.

Laura Wilson, Temporary Senior Coroner's Officer for Surrey Coroners' Court told UK News and Investigations: 'The inquest will be re-listed as the criminal proceedings have only just concluded. There may be material from those proceedings that may assist.'

Woolwich Crown Court heard the audacious robbery of 76 luxury watches worth over £1.1 million from the 247 Kettles store, in south west London, was organised and executed by a professional gang of career criminals put together in advance, apart from defendant Junior Kunu who was recruited just before it.

Mr White was tied up and robbed at the address on May 25 2024, while uninsured watches worth over £1,160,000 were stolen, the court heard.

The whole robbery was recorded on the CCTV system at the premises in Parkshot House, Kew Road, Richmond.

The court heard Kyle Mehmet, 40, from North Road, Rotherham, grabbed Mr White's wrists, and tied them with zip ties, during the robbery while Kunu placed the haul of watches into a bag.

Footage of Mr White being robbed was circulated by 247 Kettles on a watch trade group, just five hours later.

Tragically, Mr White took his own life the day after the robbery.

Kyle Mehmet, who tied up Mr White, and Michael Holmes, who was involved in the aftermath, were both convicted of conspiracy to rob the store on May 25 2024, despite defence allegations the robbery was 'staged' and an 'inside job'.

Mannix Pedro, 38, from Woking, Surrey, who planned the raid and provided a stolen blue Audi A3 as a getaway car, was earlier convicted of conspiracy to rob the store in February this year. The three will be sentenced at a later date.

Junior Kunu, 31, (below) from Lancaster Avenue, Mitcham, the man caught on CCTV placing 76 watches into a bag, while Mr White was held by Mehmet, told the court he was reluctantly recruited to take part on the day of the robbery for £5,000 after being assured it was an 'inside job' and no one would be hurt.

He was found not guilty of conspiracy to rob.

Pedro, 38, from Woking, Surrey, planned the raid and provided a stolen blue Audi A3 as a getaway car.

He had already been tried and convicted of conspiracy to rob the store in February this year, jurors were told, and has yet to be sentenced.

The same jury was unable to reach a verdict in connection with Kunu, 31, from Lancaster Avenue, Mitcham.

Holmes, 34, from student accommodation in Norfolk Park Road, Sheffield, was part of reconnaissance for a failed robbery attempt at the store two days earlier, the court heard.

The court heard another man, Michael Ashman, 35, fled abroad and is yet to be brought back to the UK.

The second trial at Woolwich Crown Court heard Pedro has seven convictions for 24 offences received from 2011 to 2019 including several for supply of crack cocaine and heroin and one each for possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and possessing ammunition without a certificate.

PREVIOUS CONVICTIONS

Holmes has 14 convictions for 23 offences that he pleaded guilty to between 2015 and 2022, including handling stolen goods and burglary and theft.

He was released from prison just 23 days before the robbery and was 'on the run' as he was subject to a prison recall after failing to attend a probation appointment on his day of release.

The court heard Mehmet (below left with Kunu) was an experienced criminal who had a number of previous convictions including two six-year jail terms for class A drug supply and a three-year term for a robbery received in 2013.

Kunu has a small number of convictions concerning cannabis.

The court heard by 28 February 2024, Mr White had been working at 247 Kettles for approximately five months and he was contacted via an Instagram account in the name of 'KC Roofing', a firm run by Mehmet, asking about watches.

Prosecutor Edward Brown KC said: 'The 23rd May saw a visit to Kettles by the defendants Kyle Mehmet and Michael Holmes and one other untraced man. As I have said this may have been the planned robbery but was called off for some reason, or at the least a recce.'

The jury was shown evidence including CCTV, mobile phone cell site and ANPR data, of the movements of the defendants before and after the robbery as the watches, none of which have ever been recovered, were spirited away.

Phone messages and voicemails between some of the alleged conspirators also formed part of the evidence.

Downloads from Pedro's phone showed a three–way conversation between him, Mehmet and another unknown man throughout March 2024, the court heard.

The court heard Kettles is a slang term for watches.

One sent from Pedro to Mehmet said: 'The box and papers for the kettles are in there'.

Others said: 'Don't play with them when you are in there' and Mr Brown said this meant not to hold back and to use necessary force.

The blue Audi A3 used was recovered by police on May 27 2024 on Hill View Rd, Twickenham, with Mehmet’s left forefinger print found on the front and rear index plates.

A black BMW X4 rental car used by Pedro also had Mehmet’s left thumb print found on the front screen of a Panasonic TV found in the rear seats (picture).

The court heard Mehmet fled to Turkey for three months after the robbery but returned later to the UK was arrested and charged.

Kunu handed himself into Lewisham police station on June 4 2024 and Holmes was arrested on August 2 2024.

Pedro was arrested on board a plane at Gatwick Airport on August 28 2024 with four large suitcases and two smaller ones with a one-way ticket to Marseille and a passport in the name of Maison Le Marriot Cologne.

The jury failed to reach a verdict in the case of Kunu at his first trial after he insisted in his defence that he only took part because the organisers told him it was not a robbery, but an 'inside job'.

Holmes did not give evidence, with his barrister Rupert Bowers KC saying he was simply 'tagging along' with Mehmet, while on the run. 

Alan Kent KC, defending Kunu, and Daniel Jones KC, for Mehmet, told the court their clients claimed it was an 'inside job' possibly involving Mr White, who 'offered no resistance.'

Kunu told the latest trial he reluctantly agreed to take part after being offered £5,000 to take part in a 'staged robbery' in which no one would get hurt and the 'victim', Mr White knew what was going on.

He said he was told there was no need for gloves or masks as CCTV of the incident would be wiped.

He told the court the panic alarm was not activated by Mr White (below), and the court heard he did not press it after they left, while Mehmet left Mr White's mobile phone for him downstairs in the building's reception.

INSIDE JOB CLAIM

Once the theory of an inside job was presented to the jury, Judge Phillip Shorrock said it was open to them to find that the first jury had potentially 'got it wrong' in respect of Pedro's guilt for conspiracy to rob.

Kunu said ultimately, he was double crossed by those who recruited him and was left in a car in Woking by Holmes, who 'took his hoodie and told to wait five minutes', but no one returned and he was never paid the £5,000.

Kunu initially made no comment in interview, but upon being charged agreed to plead guilty to a lesser charge of conspiracy to theft, after revealing the 'inside job' claim.

He said after CCTV footage of the robbery went live he was in a state of shock.

He said: 'My phone was just going crazy, people were calling asking about what I've done, I'm confused now because I didn't know what was going on.

'I was in a state of shock because I was told not to worry about the CCTV.

'I was told it was staged, and I was in a state of disbelief.'

Kunu told the court he felt awful after hearing of Mr White's death and said he wished he could turn back the clock.

Mehmet told the court he was forced to take part in the robbery to clear £190,000 left from a £230,000 drug debt to a crime gang after cash and drugs he had yet to pay for were stolen from a stash house while he was in prison in 2018.

But, it soon became clear to him it was an 'inside job,' he claimed in court.

He said: 'This firm I owed the money to said I had to do it. They said they wanted me there as the 'muscle'. I said I didn't want to, because I didn't want to go back to prison, but they said I had to to clear the debt.

'They threatened to shoot me, but when they threatened my partner and children and said they would tie them to the sofa and burn the house down, I had no choice.

'I used my own name and the name of my business because they said there would be no problems, we didn't need face masks or gloves, CCTV would be wiped and we didn't need to hurt him (Mr White), because he knew what was going on - it was an inside job.'

He said he stayed in a hotel from May 20 with Ashman and Holmes, who came with him, but only because he was wanted by police, and he was not aware of the "robbery" plan.

On May 23 he met a 'black man' in a white van, who was going to be the person to take the watches, and went to 247 Kettles, but lost his nerve and pulled out, leading to more threats from 'the firm' that they would come for him if he did not rearrange a visit to the store to carry out the robbery.

He said he went back on May 25 and this time Kunu met him to take the watches and they carried it out, with 'flimsy' cable ties used on him and no resistance being offered.

He said he was only made aware of the 'bounty' on him coming from those behind 247 Kettles during the trial and had previously believed it was from the 'firm' as he feared they thought he had given up their names.

Mr Brown said there was no evidence to support Mr White (below with his girlfriend), or anyone else involved in 247 Kettles, being involved or it being an inside job.

While there was large amounts of data, including mobile phone messaging, linking the defendants in the run up to the robbery, nothing had been found to support any contact between them and anyone at the business.

Opening the trial, he said: 'There is, however, nothing whatsoever in any of the evidence gathered by the investigation that even raises the suspicion that Oliver White was somehow involved.

'As a person he had always been careful with his money, he was not in debt, never borrowed money, never gambled, paid his credit card bills on time, paid into a pension - there were no even curious transactions in his financial affairs – nothing.

'He showed real enthusiasm for his work at Kettles. He worked very hard and always went the extra mile if he felt he needed to.

'All of this has been looked into very carefully.'

The defence tried to prevent Mr White's mother Amy Keane giving evidence about this as they suggested it may be too emotive for the jury.

But, Judge Shorrock, allowed her to give evidence, saying it was important the jury heard her alongside the 'inside job' claims.

She told the jury she had been through all of his accounts since his suicide and there was nothing suspicious, with 'no large amounts going in or out.'

ORGANISED CRIME CLAIMS

But, the court heard other defence claims that 247 Kettles itself was connected to top-level organised crime.

It was suggested the store was actually a 'money laundering front for organised crime' run behind the scenes by multi-millionaire caravan park magnate Maurice 'Fred' Sines, who has been linked to the notorious Kinahan Cartel.

Mehmet, Kunu and Holmes were also warned by police their lives were in danger after a "£100,000 bounty" was placed on each of them by Sines senior, the court heard.

The court heard Mehmet, Kunu and Holmes were issued with 'threat to life' warning notices by police upon their arrests on suspicion of conspiracy to rob the premises on the third floor of serviced offices.

Mr Jones told the jury the Met Police had done 'absolutely nothing' after issuing the warnings and had not even spoken to Sines to make him aware they knew of any plot or to warn him off.

Mr Brown sought to exclude 'bad character' evidence about Sines senior being admitted following an application by Mr Bowers.

Mr Bowers wanted the jury to hear about allegations that Sines senior had made threats to kill two other people not connected to the trial this year, after they allegedly crossed him and was still under police investigation.

He also said the jury should be allowed to hear about police intelligence linking him to an organised crime group.

Mr Brown argued it should not be admissible on the grounds of being 'hearsay, allegations and intelligence,' with Sines senior not convicted in connection with it.

Yet, Judge Shorrock, allowed it to go before the jury saying that 'in the round it does potentially have substantial value in showing Mr Sines might indeed have been the victim of an offence and, in reality, the watches belonged to him'.

Yet, he reminded the jury that Sines senior had not been charged or convicted and denied the offences.

But, he said that 'taken together' the jury may conclude he was potentially involved with serious crime.

On paper the jury was told the business was owned by Joe Riley and Connor Thornton, both 27, who are its registered directors at Companies House.

Mr Bowers suggested to the jury it was actually 'a front for money laundering' owned behind the scenes by Sines, 63, and his son Fred Sines junior, who both now use the surname Doe.

The court heard Sines junior, 37, was convicted in May this year of his involvement in a conspiracy to handle gold from the theft of a £4.8 million 18-carat gold toilet stolen from an exhibition at Blenheim Palace in September 2019, for which he received 21 months imprisonment suspended for two years and was ordered to do 240 hours unpaid work.

The court heard it was an 'unusual' business with no shop front and only advertised on social media.

Mr Brown read an agreed facts document to the jury.

He said: 'Kyle Mehmet, Junior Kunu and Michael Holmes were issued with a threat to life warning notice by the police on arrest.

'Those notices stated "Following the robbery at 247 Kettles a substantial bounty was placed on those suspects responsible. As a result of your suspected involvement in this offence it has come to police attention that you may at risk of serious harm due to the above."'

The court heard Fred Sines junior visited 247 Kettles on May 25 while police were there and before Mr White made a 999 call about the robbery at 3:15pm, he first called Mr Thornton, who was in the US, with Mr Riley.

Mr Kent said Mr Thornton did not call police either, but rang Sines junior who he described as 'another partner' in the business.

After Mr White later called 999, uniformed police officers arrived at the premises, followed by Sines junior, before DC Tom Waller, the Senior Investigating officer of the Met Police's Flying Squad, arrived.

Mr Brown told the court: 'PC Ross noted "Oliver seemed more stressed at what his boss would say to him, as an associate, apparently called Fred, arrived on scene and berated him for seeing two clients on his own and having every watch on display, when the usual protocol is only to show the exact watches that have been asked for and nothing more."'

The jury was earlier told about a meeting the next day at the premises attended by Mr White, Mr Thornton, Mr Riley, and Mr Sines at just after 4pm.

It ended at around 5pm and about three hours later Mr White, who left separately to the other three, was found dead in a wood near Shepperton, West London, where he played as a boy after being found by a friend.

His suicide was as a direct result of the robbery, according to Mr Brown.

The court heard that Mr White offered to compensate the owners with £14,000 he had been saving for a deposit on a flat with girlfriend, and he even attempted to transfer the money to them before his death.

Mr Brown said: 'He was still very shaken up and did not want to speak even to his girlfriend, Alana Dredge, about the attack – they had been together for seven years and had been planning a life together.

'But he insisted on going to the meeting with his friends – the two owners – and with another man (Sines) who was part of the business the next day.'

The jury was told that Mr White was 'devastated' when the men suggested that he did not put up enough of a fight during the robbery.

The court heard CCTV of the 'intense' meeting on May 26 is missing.

A statement from Ms Dredge read to the court said 'Ollie did not want to talk to me. He told me Fred told Olly he didn't put up much of a fight and made it easy, alleging he had something to do with it and Connnor agreed he might have had something to do with the robbery and Joe said he didn't know what to think and couldn't look ollie in the eyes.'

When police tried to obtain CCTV evidence of the meeting, it was discovered that the harddrive had been replaced with a new one and the recording of the meeting has never been found, the court heard.

On 19 June 2024 police met Mr Thornton at 247 Kettles and asked where the footage was.

Mr Thornton said he did not know and that other people had access to the CCTV system, the court heard.

Christopher Andrews, of Bespoke Security Sussex, which provided the 247 Kettles CCTV, said he was contacted by Mr Thornton on 19 June 2024, asking for the CCTV hard drive to be replaced, and whether it recorded audio, which it did not.

Mr Andrews told police he retained the hard drive, but later destroyed it, the court heard.

The jury was told at the start of the trial that Mr Thornton would give evidence, but the prosecution did not call him in the end with no explanation given.

Judge Shorrock told the jury not to speculate on why.

Mr Riley said he was not available to give evidence at trial and Judge Shorrock had to issue a witness summons to get him there and he gave evidence from behind a screen.

During cross examination by Mr Kent it was revealed that 96 watches were out in the store at the time of the robbery, when only those to show any customer should be brought out.

Mr Kent asked why there was no recording of the CCTV from the meeting the day after the robbery.

Mr Riley said: 'There is a 30-day or 14-day timer, or something.'

Mr Kent said: 'that meeting took place and ended quite abruptly, and is that because a call came through from somebody who might know the location of the watches?'

Mr Riley said it was because someone thought they had seen someone from the CCTV who had taken the watches.

Mr Bowers then asked him how the two men had started the business and recovered after an earlier uninsured burglary at an earlier premises in 2021 when about £250,000 of stock was taken in the safe.

Mr Riley said they used savings to set it up and other watch traders on a Whatsapp group had an extensive whip round after the burglary, but he was unable to name any of the firms who chipped in under cross examination.

Mr Bowers said the 2023 accounts for the 247 Kettles company filed at Companies House were 'a work of fiction' and included no details of the value of the watches.

He suggested the watches were 'stolen' at a convenient time so as to avoid paying tax on them.

He went on to ask why Mr Thornton had called Sines junior from the US and asked him to attend the premises rather than police.

'I don’t know, I didn't make that call. The police had already been called by Ollie prior to that,' Mr Riley said.

Mr Bowers said: 'So why call Fred? What has Fred got to do with it?'

'He's a good friend of Connor’s, who he trusted to deal with it,' Mr Riley said.

Mr Bowers asked: 'Or is it really that the entire enterprise is really funded by the Sines family?

'This is just money laundering?

'It's just a criminal enterprise from start to finish with Fred Sines and his father behind it isn't it?'

Mr Riley denied all of this.

Mr Bowers also suggested the Sines senior was behind the three £100,000 "bounties" placed on the robbers, but Mr Riley insisted these were just rewards that he and Mr Thornton would have paid out of the value of the watches had they been found.

Mr Bowers also asked what happened in the meeting on May 26, why Fred Sines was there and why the CCTV was deleted.

Mr Riley said he didn't know, and denied the watches were the property of Sines when this was suggested by Mr Bowers.

Mr Bowers said: 'How frightened was Oliver White at that meeting?

'Were threats made by you, Mr Thornton or Mr Sines?’

'No, he was not frightened, just startled from the robbery,' Mr Riley said.

Mr Bowers said: 'You or Connor destroyed that footage because you knew it would reveal what happened in that meeting, so it had to be destroyed before the police got hold of it.

'Are you responsible for what took place, for staging this robbery, together with Mr Sines, maybe so these accounts can be doctored?

'Are you scared of Mr Sines, of Fred junior, of Fred senior, are you scared of them?'

'No,' said Mr Riley.

DC Waller gave evidence earlier in the trial than Mr Riley about how the three defendants had been identified through CCTV, ANPR and mobile phone cell site data, before phone message evidence had also been used to link them to the plot.

Cross examining DC Waller, Mr Kent asked him about any investigations into the business owners and the meeting.

Mr Kent said external security firm CCTV from the main building showed Mr White, Mr Thornton, Mr Riley and Mr Sines arriving and leaving after the meeting on May 26, but nothing was available from inside, where the cameras were separately controlled by 247 Kettles itself.

DC Waller explained he could not recall their movements as this CCTV evidence did not form part of the robbery investigation and said Mr Sines had not been asked to provide any statements.

Mr Kent said: 'You say it was not part of the robbery investigation, but Mr Brown described the meeting as a situation that must have been intense.

'When Mr Sines leaves, he is on the phone isn't he?'

'I can't recall,' said DC Waller.

Mr Kent said: 'About three hours after leaving that tense meeting, Mr White took his own life. He didn't go home did he, so where did he go?'

DC Waller said there was some evidence of his movements from phone data, but the Met had not tracked the movements of the four men after the meeting in the run up to Mr White's death, as it was not considered a line of enquiry for the robbery.

He said: 'There is a separate police investigation with Surrey Police and that might be something they looked at.'

Mr Brown said it was an agreed fact that 'Fred Sines declined to provide a witness statement to the police with regards to the Surrey

Police investigation into Oliver White’s death.'

After the trial Surrey Police confirmed 'the inquest into the death of Oliver White is subject to coronial process. There are no additional investigations.'

Mr Kent said to DC Waller: 'So with all the tracking you can do and with what the jury has been told about the tragic consequences of the robbery, the Met Police haven't tracked these four men once they left the building?

'We can see four men go in and come out but we can't see what happened in the tense meeting as the CCTV was replaced or deleted. Mr White's family, you know, were anxious to see that footage of the meeting weren't they? because they were worried about what happened in that meeting. Perhaps because of its intensity? Their view was they were being lied to or fobbed off by Mr Thornton or Mr Riley.'

'Yes, they were. His father made attempts to see that CCTV in the weeks after Oliver's death.' DC Waller replied.

He added that enquiries by the Met in early June found that after the meeting on May 26 the hard drive for the CCTV had been swapped with a new one.

DC Waller was asked what the Met knew about Mr Sines.

He replied: 'He is a male with a previous conviction from a well known offence earlier this year. In broad terms Fred Sines was one of seven men arrested for a well known heist of Blenheim Palace when a golden toilet was stolen.

'He was on trial at Oxford Crown Court earlier this year and given a suspended sentence.'

Mr Kent suggested 247 Kettles was not a usual jewellery store, having no shop front, on the third floor of services offices, and which advertised on social media, mainly instagram, with products that were not insured.

He asked if police had investigated how Mr Thornton and Mr Riley, two men in their 20s, had become involved in a high-end jewellery business and DC Waller said he would have to refer to their statements.

Mr Kent said: 'This is not your usual high-end jewellery shop. Is it a front for money laundering? Did you investigate that?'

'No, it was not part of this investigation,' he replied.

'So, despite Mr Sines being a money launderer, you did not investigate the shop being a front for money laundering?,' Mr Kent said.

DC Waller said: 'It was not seen as a relevant line of enquiry.'

Mr Kent said: 'But, we do know that the footage went missing of that meeting on May 26 and Mr white didn't go home and that he commited suicide.'

In closing submissions on Tuesday<Nov25>Mr Bowers suggested Mr White may not have been in on the 'inside job' created by those above him in 247 Kettles to make 'it look real'.

He said: 'I suggest his suicide was not the direct result of the robbery, but hopefully it has been demonstrated that there was a lot more going on (at 247 Kettles) than at first meets the eye.

'The business 247 Kettles is rotten to the core. It can still be a set up even if Oliver White was not in on it because it can be set up by others. It might make more sense if he was not in on it for the purposes of a fraud because they would want it to look realistic... and so he would give a realistic account to police.'

He suggested Mr Riley had lied about the reason for having no insurance and how the business recovered financially after two raids.

He also suggested the accounts the firm filed after the robbery showing losses of £500,000 were fictitious and to defraud HMRC.

He said: 'The watches go round in circles and are happily reunited with their papers and the false accounts are submitted without having to pay tax.'

He suggested Mr Thornton and Mr Riley were in the US at the time to 'distance themselves from what was happening.'

He also suggested they purposefully destroyed the CCTV of the meeting with Mr White on May 26 as they did not want anyone to see what happened. A new date for Mr White's inquest is to be set.

BACKGROUND ON MAURICE SINES

Maurice 'Fred' Sines - aka Fred Doe - is a self-made multi-millionaire who created his fortune in the mobile home park business and still prides himself on his English Gypsy heritage.

The 63-year-old is a director of at least 18 active limited companies with thousands of tenants paying rent across a string of park homes stretching from east Anglia into the West Country.

It is understood he bought his first park in 1997 and now, one of his main companies Sines Parks Holdings Limited, had net assets of more than £20 million, according to its most recently filed accounts for the year to the end of March 31 2024.

His social media feeds show him posing with a number of luxury cars, including Rolls Royces with the personalised number plates 'Sines' and 'Gyp5y.'

They have also highlighted the work of a charitable organisation named after him - 'Brighter Sines' - that fundraised for children and other charities and donated to food banks.

But, aside from the public philanthropy displays, Sines (above) is no stranger to controversy.

There have been repeated claims of bullying and intimidation at a number of his mobile home parks, often occupied by the elderly, over the past two decades.

The alleged modus operandi was for Sines and his business partner James Crickmore, 45, to block the sales of mobile homes by individual owners on their parks, so they were forced to sell to them at reduced rates.

In many cases they then replaced them with more luxurious mobile homes which could be sold at much higher prices.

In 2005, residents at Ladycroft Park in Blewbury, Oxfordshire, took him to court and obtained a court order in which he agreed to stop using threats and abuse and blocking sales, although Sines later said he only agreed to it because he was not doing those things anyway.

The case was discussed in Parliament the following year as MPs looked at new laws to protect residents, amid claims of 'a long track record of abusing' his tenants and 'making their lives a misery'.

In 2011 the Basildon Echo newspaper alleged Sines and Crickmore were marketing Hayes Farm Caravan Park, near Wickford, as year-round living after an undercover investigation received a sales pitch to that effect, when, in reality, it could only be occupied for nine months of the year.

The newspaper reported how scores of retired couples, who downsized their homes to live on the caravan park, faced being left homeless for up to three months every winter.

In December of the same year Sines and Crickmore were embroiled in a major bet rigging probe by the British Horseracing Authority.

It found the two race horse owners and nine others, including two then jockeys and two former ones, guilty of serious breaches of the sport's rules.

The investigation centred on 10 races at five courses between January and August 2009 and concluded Sines and Crickmore, who were each banned from horse racing for 14 years, were the organisers of a conspiracy to bet on horses to lose.

In 2012 then Epping Forest MP Eleanor Laing accused Sines of "disgusting bullying tactics" at the Breach Barns park in Galley Hill, Waltham Abbey, during a House of Commons debate on introducing new laws to combat rogue park owners.

Sines hit back at the time, saying it was spelt out “110 per cent” to buyers that Hayes Farm was a holiday park.

In February 2013 Sines' and Crickmore's company Leisure Park Real Estate was ordered to pay more than £300,000 in fines and compensation after it admitted 11 charges of using bullying tactics, including blocking sales, against residents at Medina Park, near East Cowes, on the Isle of Wight.

Aside from sharp business practices and betrigging, there had been no major serious crime allegations against Sines and Crickmore, but in 2018, things stepped up a gear in the republic of Ireland.

During confiscation proceedings against members of the Byrne crime group, tied to the wider international Kinahan Cartel, the pair were named as senior associates by the Irish Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB).

The cartel is an international organised crime group "involved in drugs supply, firearms and money laundering" that originated in Ireland, with tentacles in Europe, Dubai and beyond, that is said to be run by Christy "The Dapper Don" Kinahan, 67, and sons Daniel, 47, and younger brother Christopher junior, 44.

The three are holed up in Dubai.

Since April 2022 there has been an international bounty on their heads led by the US FBI with a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to any of their arrests.

In a submission filed at the High Court in Dublin, in July 2018, the CAB said it had obtained details of a British HMRC investigation into Sines and Crickmore for alleged offences of conspiracy to cheat the public revenue, money laundering, under declared income tax and being members of an organised crime group.

It said they were arrested on suspicion of the offences on June 24 2015 and the investigation remained ongoing at the time.

The submission said Sines and Crickmore junior were close to Irish gangster and Kinahan associate Liam Byrne, 44, and Thomas 'Bomber' Kavanagh, 58, (above) the UK head of the Kinahan Cartel, based in the Midlands.

Kavanagh was jailed for 21 years in March 2022 at Ipswich Crown Court 20 months after he pleaded guilty to multi-million pound drug supply offences.

He received an extra six years for perverting the course of justice at the Old Bailey in October 2024.

Kavanagh dreamt up a conspiracy to trick the National Crime Agency (NCA) into believing he was providing information on the location of firearms, in the hope it would get him a reduced sentence for the drugs.

Kavanagh ran the conspiracy from prison while on remand by getting associates, including Byrne to get guns and hide them.

But, the NCA had intercepted messages about the plot on the encrypted EncroChat phone system.

Byrne was jailed for five years for his role, but was released after just three months in January and placed under strict monitoring and a Serious Crime Prevention Order.

Byrne had earlier moved to Birmingham from Ireland after the major CAB probe raided the LS Active Car Sales business, he set up in Dublin in 2013, seizing one million euros worth of vehicles.

According to the CAB submission James Crickmore had exported vehicles to LS Active on a 'sale or return' basis, which was a way of laundering criminal funds, and provided 'seed funding' for the business from his British company M and M (Cambridge) LLP.

The submission said: '(James) Crickmore and Sines are regular visitors to Dublin, at which time they are in the company of members of the organised crime gang.

'They stay at the Westbury Hotel, where it has been established that Liam Byrne has paid for some of their stays.

'They featured prominently at the funeral of Liam's brother David Byrne (Liam's brother who was shot dead in February 2016 at Dublin's Regency Hotel as part of the Kinahan feud with the rival Hutch gang) where Maurice Sines is pictured wearing the same suit as other leading figures in the organised crime gang.

'This is believed to be a display of solidarity by the wider Kinahan organised crime gang and an indication of the level of trust he holds within this group.

'James Crickmore's company also transferred funds electronically to LS Active Car Sales' bank account, providing seed capital for the business to start trading.

'On early compliance visits, Liam Byrne stated that James Crickmore was providing vehicles to him on a 'sale or return' basis, a scheme used by criminals in the motor industry.

'James Crickmore and Maurice Sines are also under investigation for their involvement in an ongoing VAT and VRT fraud in the UK. Both have acquired significant wealth, which they flaunt.

'For example in October 2016 Maurice Sines had his white Rolls Royce Phantom, with an approximate value of 300,000 euros, featuring the registration plates 'Sines1' brought to Ireland.'

Sines and Crickmore deny any involvement in organised crime and the HMRC investigation appears to have led to no charges against any of them.

In May 2022 Sines and his son Fred Sines junior, 37, both changed their names to Fred Doe.

Sines senior has posted a number of times on social media about alleged harassment by police due to his Gypsy roots.

On July 23 2020 he posted a video next to a black Rolls Royce with the number plate Gyp5y, complaining of 'racism' due to being stopped by police two to three times daily.

The following day he posted another video with police officers again complaining of harassment.

On November 5 and 6 2020 he posted on Twitter videos of police and firefighters turning up to a 'fireworks bonfire' under the heading 'Boys in Blue won't leave me alone'.

In March this year Sines junior was convicted of his involvement in a conspiracy to handle gold from the theft of a £4.8 million 18-carat gold toilet stolen from an exhibition at Blenheim Palace in September 2019.

He received 21 months imprisonment suspended for two years and was ordered to do 240 hours unpaid work.

During the trial, he wore a £3,000 Louis Vuitton parka and often parked his £149,000 Range Rover Sport on double yellow lines and bowled into the court building flanked by minders.

In the witness box he said he ran a successful construction vehicle company and did some work for his father's business.

He also told the jury how he coached and mentored 35 'kids who haven't had the best start' at a boxing club in Camberley, Surrey and said one of his sons had represented England as a junior boxer.

Like his dad, he also brought up his charity work that raises up to £40,000 each year for sick and terminally ill children.

After Sines junior's conviction, his father reportedly said his son may have been 'victimised' because of the 'family name and his gypsy roots.'  

He went on to say being friends with Kinahan associates did not make him a criminal.

He said: 'Being friendly with someone isn't a crime, is it? Is it a crime to be a mate or go on holiday? Or have a game of golf? Or have a drink with somebody?

'OK, I go to Dublin, there's a christening, I take a Rolls-Royce, a Range Rover and Merc Jeep cos they need cars . . . and all of a sudden it's me, it's them [the cartel] it's this, it's that.'

Sines told how he had lived in a mansion at Wentworth, Surrey, the golf resort where celebrities such as Sir Elton John and the late Bruce Forsyth were neighbours.

He said in 2015 armed police raided the home while he and wife Elaine slept, pointing guns at his head.

His assets, including fleets of luxury cars and jewellery, were frozen for five years after the raid, he said.

Now living more humbly in a mobile home on one of his parks near Windsor Castle, Sines said in March the police 'believe something that's not there. We are straight, legit business people [but] if you listen to the stories . . . I'm Al Capone,' he said.

Of the HMRC freezing order, he added: ''They said I owed £50 million, something like this [but] I didn't give them 50 pence. I won everything. They got egg on their face.'

Westminster Magistrates' Court records show that Sines did, indeed, have a victory over HMRC.

On November 25 2020 the court awarded HMRC an account freezing order against Sines for £3,055,295.35 under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

Yet, at a further hearing just 15 days later, the court set aside the freezing order, meaning that lawyers for Sines successfully argued against it.

It is not known if the investigation is ongoing and HMRC refuses to comment on individual cases.

Regardless of the status of the investigation, Sines senior has continued to court controversy.

In March 2020 Guildford Crown Court heard that after he gave police the slip in his £405,000 Rolls Royce Phantom, he lied to officers that he had told his chauffeur not to stop because he was having sex in the back seat with a woman who was not his wife.

He fled police in the vehicle from the PGA golf tournament at one time on the wrong side of the road and at speeds of 60mph on 30mph roads, before he abandoned it in Virginia Water in May 2018.

He later admitted he was driving while disqualified and pleaded guilty, getting an eight-month sentence suspended for two years.

This April neighbours of Sines claimed he had devalued their homes by turning a scenic rural area into a massive scrapyard.

Sines bulldozed land along Eton Wick Road in Berkshire before filling it with old cars, shipping containers and scrap without planning permission.

It was after he outbid the nearby Eton School in 2020 for the land by paying £783,000.

Planning applications were later submitted and enforcement notices from Windsor and Maidenhead Council were appealed.

A planning application for storage of shipping containers was refused in June while a further one for storage of cars remains undetermined.