Boxing promoter Barry Hughes fined after fraud sentence quashed
Scottish boxing promoter Barry Hughes has been fined £45,000 after his 43-month jail sentence for mortgage fraud and money laundering was quashed.
The 35-year-old had admitted illegally obtaining £1.2m for two mortgages and laundering £150,000.
Appeal court judges decided to set aside his jail sentence after hearing nobody lost any money as a consequence of his actions.
Hughes, from Kilmacolm, launched an appeal after being sentenced in March.
He had been allowed to leave jail temporarily after judges granted him interim liberation following the hearing earlier this year.
The businessman had admitted lying on mortgage applications about his wife's income in January 2004 for one property in Bridge of Weir and in November 2006 for a second house in Kilmacolm.
Hughes also admitted two laundering charges - for receiving £128,885 after selling a property and spending spending £30,000 towards a Rolex Watch.
At the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh, judges Lord Carloway, Lord Brodie and Lord Philip heard defence QC Gordon Jackson argue a jail sentence was not proportionate.
Mr Jackson told the court the exact nature of the offence was defined as when somebody suffered a loss as a consequence of a deliberate, wrongful action.
The QC said that none of the parties involved had suffered a monetary loss and that the financial institutions had actually made hundreds of thousands of pounds in interest payments.
He argued that experts believed almost one third of mortgages approved in the early 2000s were granted on the basis of people providing fraudulent information.
Mr Jackson added: "There was never any intention or motive to cause anybody to suffer. The only intention here was for the Hughes to create a family home."
Speaking from the bench, Lord Carloway said: "The court is of the opinion that a custodial sentence wasn't appropriate. The appropriate penalty in this case is the imposition of a fine."