Ex Hibs and Hearts footballer jailed for criminal cash handover

A former Hearts and Hibs footballer has been jailed after being caught by police with £400,000 of laundered money.

James Keatings, 33, was seen transferring boxes of cash from a van in Wisahw, Lanarkshire, in June last year following a tip off from the National Crime Agency.

Keatings, who lifted the Scottish Cup with Hibs in 2016, previously admitted possessing and transferring criminal property at Falkirk Sheriff Court.

He was jailed for 13 months and will face further proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act to seize the criminal cash.

Keatings was arrested after he was observed by officers from Police Scotland and the NCA making the cash transfer from his transit van to a Mercedes van.

A search of the Mercedes found two boxes containing 78 bundles of notes totalling £390,040.

The court heard that Keatings’ finger prints were found in various locations on the boxes and bank notes.

Keatings came through the Celtic academy and also represented Dundee United, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Hamilton Academical and several other Scottish sides during his career.

Keatings retrained as a plasterer following the end of his playing career after a hip injury.

His lawyer, Tony Graham, said the decision to quit football led to a “considerable deterioration in his ability to earn” and a “deterioration in his lifestyle”.

He also cited Keatings’ poor mental health as a result of the end of his career.

Mr Graham said Keatings had been prescribed various painkillers for his hip but “did not consider they were sufficient to alleviate the pain he endured”.

Keatings began sourcing illegal painkillers to allow him to self-medicate.

The court heard how an opportunity arose to be “paid in medication” for moving the sum of money.

Jailing him for 13-and-a-half months, Sheriff Christopher Shead said prison was “the only appropriate disposal”.