A CAREW-BASED scrap metal dealer, who has previously claimed he was ‘the victim of a witch hunt’ after conviction for breaching regulations, has been jailed for 30 months for failing to repay £208,000.

George Jones, whose address has previously been given as Strawberry Fields, Clayford Road, Kilgetty, appeared before a special confiscation court at West Glamorgan Magistrates Court, Port Talbot on February 15.

Jones was subject to a confiscation order for £208,000, made in May 2017 under the Proceeds of Crime Act (PoCA) following conviction for operating a scrap metal recovery facility without a permit, duty of care offences and failing to keep proper records.

No payments were made under this order, so Jones was taken back into court for a PoCA enforcement hearing.

Magistrates issued a warrant of commitment and the Jones was jailed to serve the default sentence of 912 days (30 months).

Back in May 2017, Swansea crown court heard how Jones and his son Nenning Jones, had made more than a million pounds trading scrap metal from Carew Airfield.

They were ordered to pay more than £289,000 between them or go to jail for operating a scrap metal recovery facility without a permit, duty of care offences and failing to keep proper records.

That court heard George Jones, then aged 60, was said by a judge to be the driving hand behind both Enviroventure Ltd and its pretend successor GJF Recycling Ltd.

After a two day hearing at Swansea crown court, during which he claimed to now own only £2,000 "worth of cars and horses," he suddenly offered to find £208,000 to satisfy a Proceeds of Crime investigation.

His son, Nenning Jones, 36, who appeared to be the only director of Enviroventure, must pay £154,229 and £81,287 of that within three months.

Judge Paul Thomas ruled that if they did not pay George Jones, of Strawberry Fields, Clayford Road, Kilgetty, would serve up to two-and-a-half years.

Nenning Jones, of Sageston Fields, Sageston, would serve up to 18 months in default.

George Jones' then partner, Jennifer Frearson, aged 48, the only listed director of GJF, was told she would serve seven days in jail if she did not hand over £364 in cash and the value of a two old cars.

All three had been convicted of operating a scrap metal recovery facility without a permit, duty of care offences and failing to keep proper records.

The court heard that Enviroventure had operated at the airfield since 2002 but in 2011 ran into trouble with Natural Resources Wales, who launched a prosecution into what and how was being processed.

Vehicles were being "depolluted" without the necessary infrastructure, batteries were being stored inadequately, there were drainage issues and tyres, waste cars and oil drums were being stored outside the designated perimeters.

To avoid the legal consequences, ruled Judge Thomas, Enviroventure was "sacrificed" and GJF came into being "as a device, a scam" to get around the prosecution.

GJF, which behaved in a similar way, didn't even have a licence to be there in the first place.

Before it disappeared, "vast amounts of cash" that should have gone into the accounts of Enviroventure were diverted into GJF, so much so that GJF banked £1,612,381 in its first eight months, at least £729,255 of which should have gone to Enviroventure.

Despite the turnover, GJF itself was dissolved in 2015.

Tim Evans, prosecuting on behalf of Natural Resources Wales, said the accounts of both companies had been so poorly kept that even trained investigative accountants could not work out how much profit they had made.

For example, he said, at least £208,000 had disappeared in cash "in a short period of time" from the accounts of GJF and listed as "additional spending" because the accountants didn't have a clue where it had gone.

Judge Thomas said he had to rule on several issues to complete the Proceeds of Crime investigation.

He ruled that George Jones had made £907,321 out of criminal behaviour. After a short adjournment he was told that Jones would raise and repay the vanished £208,000 within three months.

Frearson, still listed in court as living at Strawberry Fields but said to be now separated from George Jones, was ruled to have benefitted by £113,415 but to now have little assets.

Nenning Jones was ruled to have benefitted by £154,229, of which £81,287 could be repaid within three months.

But that would mean him selling or remortgaging Sageston Fields, a four bedroom house he occupied with his wife and four children.

Mr Evans said Nenning Jones was still operating as a scrap metal dealer at Carew under the name Airfield Metals.

The authorities can take steps to recover the outstanding amounts at later dates.

After the hearing, George Jones said they had been the victim of a witch hunt and that their only crimes had been to "breach a few regulations."