08 June 2023 , 13:25
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A fraudster disguised a £1.2million mansion to look like a farm shed where he kept antiques, oil paintings, and a £10,000 Rolex watch.
The property that belonged to Alan Yeomans, 67, in Derbyshire, is now having green cladding, so it couldn't be seen from the road, removed by new owners with planning permission granted.
Half of the six-bedroom Shedley Manor was concealed so it looked like a farm shed by Yeomans, who declared himself bankrupt.
He told officials he was living in a shed in his mother's garden and had just £300-worth of furniture and a £30 watch to his name.
But police raided the property following a tip-off and discovered an Aladdin's cave, including a £10,000 Rolex watch and antiques and oil paintings worth £83,250.
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New owners have planning permission to remove the green cladding (Derbyshire Police / SWNS)Officers also found designer shoes and cannabis plants which were stashed in a secret room behind an oil painting of Elizabethan statesman Robert Cecil.
An outbuilding at the property in Yeaveley, near Ashbourne, was also used as a cannabis factory.
Yeomans admitted a string of offences including fraud, money laundering and producing cannabis, and was jailed for six-and-a-half years in 2016.
Oil paintings were found hidden at the property (Derbyshire Police / SWNS)The property was auctioned and initially earmarked for demolition but was then re-sold.
The current owners have now been given planning permission by Derbyshire Dales District Council to renovate it.
They have been granted permission to remove the green cladding, put windows in rooms that had none and create a new entrance.
Yeomans was claiming bankruptcy while owning the £1.2 million mansion (Derbyshire Police / SWNS)Architect Matthew Montague said: "This property has quite a history. It was built to look, from the outside, like a non-descript corrugated green agricultural barn but it was far from that and in reality there was luxury hidden within.
"Quite a considerable amount of work is now needed, both inside and out, to make it into a house but permission has been granted so the owners can get on with it. It will look very, very different."
Police raided the property after receiving a tip off (Derbyshire Police / SWNS)Yeomans was jailed after pleading guilty to nine charges relating to the production and supply of cannabis, stealing electricity, concealing criminal property and failing to disclose bankruptcy.
Derby Crown Court heard he had built the manor in 2002 in his mother's back garden, without planning permission, and with green cladding to disguise it as a large shed.
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When he was jailed, Judge Nirmal Shant branded Yeomans “a liar, a money launderer, and someone involved in the production of drugs”.
Derby Crown Court heard he had built the manor in 2002 in his mother's back garden (Derbyshire Police / SWNS)Glenn Wicks, of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, said: "What surprised me when I went into Shedley Manor was that someone built a six-bedroom manor house in the Peak District and filled it with fine art and antiques and the authorities didn't know anything about it.
"This was a very intricate, sophisticated set-up.”