PUB BLAZE
New twist in The Crooked House pub fire mystery as link to convicted drug smuggler is revealed
THE mystery surrounding Britain's fire-ravaged “wonkiest pub” has taken a dramatic turn - after being linked to a kingpin drug smuggler.
The Crooked House pub in Himley, Staffs, burnt down on August 5 - before being bulldozed just 36 hours later.
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Police are treating the incident as arson as The Sun revealed pub owners Carly and Adam Taylor have fled to a luxury £20,000-a-week Greek villa in Corfu.
Cops are investigating the blaze but have not named any suspects.
But new details reveal the digger that razed the historic pub was hired by AT Contracting & Plant Hire, whose director is a convicted drug runner, reports.
Morgan McGrath, 51, from Breansha, Co Tipperary, was jailed for 12 years in 2004 for his role in a £20 million operation.
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He was one of two men who pleaded guilty to charges relating to an attempt to import into 48kg of heroin, 198kg of cannabis resin and 591,180 Ecstasy tablets into Ireland.
The plot also tried to ship 602,000 temazepam tablets and 132kg of amphetamine (Speed) into Ireland.
At the time it was one of the biggest drug hauls ever intercepted by police in Europe.
After being released from prison in Ireland in 2015 or 2016, McGrath moved to the UK and now shares a number of directorships with the Taylors.
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Mr McGrath's LinkedIn says he is an operations manager of a transport company.
And Companies House documents reveal a business relationship with the Taylors of at least seven years.
He and Adam Taylor are the only active directors at AT Contracting & Plant Hire which provides heavy machinery to the Taylors' nation-wide quarries and landfill sites.
Both men are licensed to drive vehicles at AT Contracting & Plant Hire.
McGrath is also a director of a firm alongside Ethan Taylor, 23, Adam Taylor’s son from a previous relationship.
The owner of the digger that bulldozed The Crooked House said it was hired by AT Contracting before the blaze.
The Crooked House was constructed in 1765 as a farmhouse but became a pub in the 1830s with people flocking to see how one side is 4ft (1.2m) lower than the other.
Originally called 'The Siden House', meaning crooked in Black Country dialect - the pub got its bizarre effect through subsidence caused by mining in the 1800s.
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Staffordshire Police said in a statement that the force is investigating “all of the available evidence into the cause” of the pub fire with Staffordshire Fire and Rescue and no cause had yet been established.
The police have said they “continue to engage” with the couple.
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