A NOTORIOUS gangster’s mansion is for sale for half of its original value.
Richmond Hall, formerly known as Bronwylfa Hall, home of the infamous St Asaph gangster John Damien Gizzi, is currently on the market with a Cheshire-based estate agent for £1.7 million.
The Altrincham agency has a large number of houses priced in the millions, but Bronwylfa Hall’s 4.7 acres is the companies only house in Wales.
The five-bedroomed house is described as a substantial majestic period country house and has an indoor swimming pool, Sauna, tennis courts, Gymnasium and even a cocktail bar.
The property is referred to as Richmond Hall within Watersons description, but is well known in the area as Bronwylfa and linked to Gizzi who claimed he, “ran Rhyl”.
The millionaire criminal had portrayed himself as a legitimate builder and property tycoon, but was jailed in 2006 for violence and selling counterfeit cigarettes.
He was ordered to sell the five-bedroomed property under the Proceeds of Crime Act and the initial asking price was £2.6m.
The original estate agents Strutt and Parker who sell houses all over the UK advertised it at a credit crunch price of £1.3 million.
The house was eventually sold to Julie Jones and her husband for under £1 million and was leased for £2,565 a month.
But two 15-year-old Vietnamese illegal immigrants were found in the hall, who were running a cannabis farm.
If the plan to turn the whole house into a cannabis factory had been completed then there could have been sufficient for 60 kilogrammes of cannabis with a street value of more than £400,000.
Over £75,000 worth of damage had been done to the house, as rooms were gutted to make growing areas and ventilation shafts installed.
The house is now back on the market with Watersons from Altrincham with a slightly higher price of £1.7 million, but still nearly half its original value.
Gizzi was released in 2009, but returned to a life of crime and was sent to jail for 11 years last March for conspiring to bring cocaine into Wales.
The Class A drug was allegedly worth £162,000, but his jail term was cut down to 10 years in October 2011 because Lord justice Moore-Bick speaking at the appeal court in London said the sentencing judge at Caernarfon Crown Court had not given Gizzi enough credit for pleading guilty and other mitigation, including family bereavements and good behaviour in prison.
Gizzi still owes money under the Proceeds of Crime Act following his previous convictions.
* Two other members of John Gizzi’s gang were stripped’ of their ill-gotten gains after a court hearing last Wednesday (January 18).
The nine-strong gang, led by Gizzi, were locked up for a total of 66 years last March.
Last week Neil Sutemire, 38, of no fixed abode but who comes from Liverpool, was handed a five-year and eight month jail term after the court heard he had acted as a courier.
He was arrested in December 2009 with £29,000 cash in his vehicle.
He was back in court on Wednesday for a financial hearing under The Proceeds of Crime Act.
Judge Dafydd Hughes, at Mold Crown Court sitting in Chester, made an agreed order that he had benefited to the tune of £52,750 from his criminal life-style.
The available amount was £29,021 which was already in the possession of the police.
Co-defendant Michael Bennett was found to have made £80,000 from the conspiracy.
Bennett, 33, of Towyn, rented the industrial unit where the drugs were processed ready for distribution.
He was previously jailed for four and a half years.
Judge Hughes found that he had benefited to the tune of £80,000.
But the only amount available to hand over was the £2,452 on him on his arrest.
Both were then taken back into custody to complete the remainder of their sentences.