HE was chief executive of a thriving crime empire.

Impeccably polite, articulate, and intelligent, 51-year-old Mark McCracken had the perfect attributes for a conman.

For years, his smooth-talking charm helped him amass impressive wealth - almost certainly more than £1m.

But his lucrative life of crime began to unravel when his most ambitious criminal scam - a huge cash-for-crash insurance fraud that was worth more than £500,000 - was smashed by Cumbria Police.

The investigation resulted in the successful prosecution of McCracken and more than 30 of his accomplices.

Detectives hit the evidential jackpot when they raided McCracken’s family home in Brindlefield, Wigton, where they discovered a secret cupboard, cleverly concealed behind a large mirror in the hallway.

Inside was an astonishing array documentation - all the proof police needed to show how McCracken spent years creating no fewer than 10 false identities.

It was all part of his plan to channel criminal cash into false bank accounts, so he could hide its origin. As well as the cash for crash scam, worth around £500,000, his crimes had included an identity fraud which netted him £315,000.

The “hideyhole” at the Brindlefield property contained personal financial details for 10 imaginary men: Mark Carleton, Paul Rudd, Alan Coulthard, Charles Glasgow, Michael Barnfather, John McVay, Steven Herbert, Mark Reynolds, Robert Wilson and Arnold Johns.

The group included an engineer, a Sellafield worker, and a highways technician – fantasy careers for invented characters.

In reality, they were all McCracken.

Prosecutor Tim Evans outlined the contents of the cupboard: “It was a treasure trove of dishonest documents, phones used to pursue false [insurance] claims, paperwork relating to fraudulent insurance claims, bank cards and bank statements in various false names he used and notebooks and notes, which were aid memoires for the various false transactions he had carried out.”

McCracken hid the source of his wealth by using the cash to buy five houses - one in Derwent Avenue, Maryport; one in Marks Avenue, Raffles, Carlisle; and three in Brindlefield, Wigton. Two were rented out, yielding a rental income of around £1,000 a month, the court heard.

One of the Wigton houses was originally the home of Linda McCracken’s uncle Alan Coulthard, who died on April 3, 2001.

Mr Evans said: “The fact of his death did not prevent the McCracken clan from trying to take financial advantage of him even in death. Alan Coulthard was a name McCracken would use in... the cash for crash case, and the family would use the right to buy he would have had as a living tenant to buy the house, even though he was dead.

“According to records, [the house] was sold under the right to buy scheme to Mr Alan Coulthard in a sale completed on July 8, 2001 - a clever trick given that he had been dead for just over three months.”

In two of those Brindlefield homes, police found huge bundles of cash - £46,000 in one and £56,000 in another.

“The Crown’s case is that Mark McCracken had for decades been an acquisitive criminal,” said Mr Evans.

Describing the cash find in one of those houses, the barrister said: “When [the property] was searched on September 23, 2014, a total of £56,190 cash, made of up seven different amounts, was seized: £12,960 was found behind pine wall cladding in the downstairs toilet and a further £39,580 was found behind the plasterboard in an upstairs bedroom.”

McCracken was helped by his 69-year-old mum Linda, and his sister Melanie Wilson.

Mark McCracken pleaded guilty to 11 counts of money laundering and perverting the course of justice by lying about his assets in official documents provided for the court in an earlier case. Linda McCracken admitted two counts of money laundering; and McCracken’s sister Melanie Wilson admitted three counts of the same charge.

Judge Peter Davies said McCracken’s crimes were sophisticated and prolonged.

The judge noted that McCracken - now serving a six and a half year sentence for fraud - had missed his father’s funeral.

The judge said of the defendant: “He has impressive references from a prison officer attesting to his hard work as a gym orderly, and his work with Durham University students.”

McCracken was a model prisoner, said references. “He’s vowed not to return to offending - and I hope that is right,” said the judge, imposing a jail term of 18 months.

Linda McCracken was given a nine-month jail term, suspended for two years; and Melanie Wilson a 12-month jail term, suspended also for two years, with 80 hours of unpaid work in the community.

As the case concluded, Mark McCracken smiled and simply said: “Thank you.”