THEY lived the high life. A £30,000 wedding, a round the world honeymoon, flash cars and enough cash to buy a property and business in Bournemouth.

But all along the lifestyles of Stuart Archer, 45, and Peter Lawler, 40, and their families were funded illegally through money laundering.

And on Friday the law finally caught up with them.

Following a nine-week trial at Winchester Crown Court which ended in May, ringleaders Archer and Lawler were found guilty of money laundering and being concerned in the supply of wholesale heroin. The pair were jailed for nine and seven years respectively on Friday.

Christine Archer – Stuart Archer’s 65-year-old mother – was found guilty of money laundering and sentenced to two years in prison. She had been at the centre of the money laundering operation, acquiring a property and a business in Bournemouth.

Stuart Archer’s wife, Amy Archer, 30, and Peter Lawler’s wife, Stephany Lawler, 25, each received a 12-month suspended sentence for money laundering.

It was Stephany Lawler who drove around in a BMW convertible and paid out more than £30,000 for a wedding and around the world honeymoon.

In less than three years the Archer and Lawler families, both from Liverpool, profited from crimes in excess of £400,000.

From these proceeds they bought a property in Bournemouth, restaurant business Mamma Mia in Bournemouth – now closed – and high value cars, including a Porsche 911 and BMWs.

Usually the properties and cars were registered in the women’s names.

The gang was caught during a series of arrests in Bournemouth, Poole and Merseyside in July and August 2009.

Detectives found £30,000 cash contaminated with heroin at the unoccupied cutting house in Queen’s Park South Drive in Bournemouth, expensive jewellery bought by Peter Lawler for his wife Stephany, Jimmy Choo shoes, other luxury footwear and sunglasses at Peter and Stephany Lawler’s home. They also seized a Porsche 911 from Peter Lawler and a BMW convertible car from Stephany.

Det Insp Susan Wynn, head of the economics crime unit, said the convictions followed a complex money laundering investigation and a nine-week trial between February and May 2011.

She told the Echo: “It’s a good news story for the public. They were driving around in a Porsche and other nice cars, had a nice holiday and money but the funds were illegal.

“These convictions show that Dorset residents can be confident that we will pursue any persons and their dependants, living off proceeds of crime, vigorously.”

Over £300,000-worth of criminal assets owned by the network are currently subject to a court restraining order and proceedings are now under way to confiscate them. In the same trial another man, Peter Allen, 22, pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of heroin on the first day of the trial and was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.

The sentencing of Peter Carney-Lawler, Peter Lawler’s 21-year-old son, has been adjourned.