Crooked solicitor ordered to pay £3.6m

A solicitor who played a key part in a massive bootlegging operation was today ordered to give up his £3.6 million fortune.

Louis Glatt, 55, of Finchley, was jailed last February for seven years for laundering the profits from a £34 million racket involving contraband alcohol and tobacco.

Glatt was ordered to hand over his assets today in a 30-minute confiscation hearing at Southwark Crown Court. If he does not pay up he faces a further two years in jail. Glatt spent the entire hearing reading a book.

His wealth, which was frozen by the High Court, is based on a property and shares portfolio, trust funds and charitable trusts he founded for the Jewish community.

Glatt helped to launder the money made by Ellis Martin, 43, who flooded cash and carries with cut-price drink and cigarettes which had been smuggled into the country.

Martin of Southgate, north London, was jailed for nine years in 1999 and ordered to pay £10.7million. Eight of his henchmen received sentences totalling 32 years.