Lord Sugar has thanked Essex Police after the daughters of a serial burglar who targeted his home were ordered to pay almost £100,000 back to their father’s victims.
David Buisson stole mostly cash and jewellery from homes and businesses in Epping Forest and Canvey Island, including Lord Sugar’s Essex home, between December 2015 and June 2017, stealing around £1 million of items.
He was sentenced in 2018 to eight years in prison after admitting 11 burglaries and two attempted burglaries, and was ordered to pay compensation to eight of his victims – including £173,977.77 to Lord Sugar – at a hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act in 2019.
According to Essex Police, a money laundering investigation into the serial burglar’s daughters – Tailah Morris-Buisson, 30, and Bella Morris-Buisson, 26 – was launched following their father’s conviction and has resulted in the pair being ordered to pay a total of £95,440 to the eight victims of their father’s crimes.
Lord Sugar said: “I am very impressed by the way this investigation has been handled and I would like to thank Essex Police for their persistence in confiscating the money David Buisson made by targeting people’s homes.
“I hope that this result acts as a deterrent to others who think it’s acceptable to make money from criminal activity.”
Inquiries by the force’s Economic Crime Unit revealed the sisters’ lifestyle had been heavily funded by their father’s criminality, with thousands of pounds deposited into their accounts over the period of his offending.
It was alleged they set up an electric motorcycle company in Abridge in an attempt to disguise their father’s criminal assets whilst he was evading police, Essex Police said.
The pair were arrested in October 2017 and were charged with acquiring criminal property and two counts of concealing or disguising criminal property.
Tailah Morris-Buisson, of Church Langley, and Bella Morris-Buisson, of Epping, were convicted of the charges last October, with the former receiving a 24-month suspended sentence and the latter a 20-month suspended sentence.
At a Proceeds of Crime hearing in May, Tailah Morris-Buisson was ordered to pay £94,465.05 in compensation to the eight victims of her father’s crimes, Essex Police said.
At a hearing on Wednesday, Bella Morris-Buisson was ordered to pay £975, the force added.
Financial investigator Marie Hall, from Essex Police’s Economic Crime Unit, said: “Both sisters had benefited financially from their father’s criminality.
“Tailah owned a property which had been transferred to her by David Buisson before the offences but could still be confiscated to repay the victims.
“Justice does not stop at the point of a conviction and the work that the Economic Crime Unit put into confiscation orders is to ensure that no-one in Essex can make a career out of crime.”