A GANGSTER'S mum has been jailed for living the high life on his ill-gotten gains.

Career criminal David Cullen is serving a ten-year sentence for armed robbery and a court heard his relatives enjoyed a comfortable lifestyle thanks to his life of crime.

Cullen, who had a £30,000 Franck Muller watch, treated his family to cars and foreign holidays despite having no obvious source of income.

Now his mother Bernadette Cullen, 55, of Heaton Street, Salford, is also behind bars. She wept as a judge described her as a 'prime mover' in crime and jailed her for 15 months.

Bernadette Cullen admitted conspiracy to defraud, two charges of dishonestly making false statements and converting or concealing criminal property by buying and selling a £76,000 holiday home in Florida with David's money.

Cullen's two brothers have also been jailed. Anthony Cullen, a former professional footballer, known as Tony, 36, of Myrtle Grove, Whitefield, was jailed for two years.

He admitted housing benefit fraud, conspiracy to defraud and also operating as an unlicensed moneylender. Anthony worked as a loan shark as well as helping his brother hide and spend the dirty cash.

David Cullen's younger brother, joiner Arron Cullen, 27, of Rydal Grove, Prestwich, was also jailed for two years after he admitted money laundering by acting as a front through which David bought and sold two houses.

And David Cullen himself, who turned 30 last week, was given an extra three years on top of the ten year term he is already serving for armed robbery.

Passing sentence at Manchester Crown Court last night, judge Martin Rudland told the family: "None of the offences in any cases was committed casually, on the spur of the moment or in a moment of opportunism.

“Indeed, much of the offending was of an entrenched and longstanding nature. These offences were planned, calculated, sophisticated and executed in such a way that your tracks would be covered."

He described Cullen as a "career criminal closely connected to serious organised crime".

Cullen, formerly of Heaton Street, Salford, had pleaded guilty to money  laundering and conspiracy to defraud.

He admitted he funded a string of extravagant purchases from his life of crime.

In January, the MEN reported how he lived a life to rival a Premier League footballer.

Among the luxury items he bought during the three-year spending spree were a £30,000 Franck Muller watch and a Harley Davidson 4x4 truck imported from the U.S.

But the high life came to an end when Cullen was caught carrying out a terrifying bank robbery in Preston in April 2006.

Judge Rudland described the Cullen family as "determinedly wedded to criminal enterprise and that cannot go unpunished".

Cullen's mother created a false identity to buy two homes she owned in Salford and Prestwich and then used her real name to sponge off the state by claiming she was a tenant.

Judge Rudland told her the crimes she committed were "calculated and persistent", adding: "Your life has been deeply entrenched in dishonesty for many years. Even though they are very old, your previous convictions show the way you were starting to behave when you were very young, not just stealing but also deception. The crimes you committed were a veritable merry-go-round of financial chicanery which can only be characterised as a family business."

He described her as a "prime mover" in the crimes, saying "In every stage of your life, nothing, in truth, is what it seems."

Christina Williamson, 36, of Myrtle Grove, Whitefield, Anthony Cullen's partner, was handed a 12-month suspended prison sentence and ordered to carry out 250 hours unpaid work.

The judge said she was a "disgrace", adding that he believed her falling pregnant with her second child had not been a cynical attempt to avoid prison.

David Cullen's girlfriend, Natasha Smyth, 27, of Harbourne Avenue, Worsley, was also handed a 12-month suspended prison sentence and ordered to carry out 150 hours unpaid work. She admitted benefit fraud and money laundering.

The judge told her: "These are bad people you are mixing with but you are not a bad person."