View Image

A dad who posed as an honest businessman was actually fronting a dodgy debt collection agency on behalf of an organised crime group.

Stephen Cavanagh acted as the director of IDRE Ltd, which regularly conned its customers by recovering sums which were owed to clients.

Sometimes those amounts were hundreds of thousands of pounds, but he failed to ever pay the money onwards.

Never miss a story with the MEN's daily Catch Up newsletter - get it in your inbox by signing up here

The 45-year-old claims to have become entangled in the operation after racking up a £20,000 drug debt, reports the Echo .

The "wholly dishonest entity and highly sophisticated enterprise" even used its own call centre to identify "vulnerable" targets through cold calling.

Liverpool Crown Court heard

See Full Page