News, views and top stories in your inbox. Don't miss our must-read newsletter Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

A gangster who was impaled on railings outside his luxury London home was a top money launderer for the Russian mob, investigators claim.

Scot Young, who died after falling from a fourth-floor window onto spikes of wrought iron, had warned police as well as friends and family he was being targeted by hitmen.

The 52-year-old, from Dundee, Scotland, became a "go-to fixer" for billionaire Boris Berezovsky, a friend-turned-critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin, who was himself found hanged at home in 2013, it has been said.

A team of UK journalists who have been digging into the background of Young's death have now begun to reveal some of the darker details into the gangster's background, reports the Daily Record.

(Image: PA)

(Image: PA)

In 2014 police initially said his death was not suspicious before an inquest found "conflicting evidence" but no foul play.

Global investigations editor of BuzzFeed Heidi Blake said Scot "fell in with a major organised crime group and began laundering money for them" after coming to London from Scotland.

“He became the go-to fixer for Berezovsky and his associates as they sought ways to stash their ill-gotten cash in an extraordinary array of luxury British properties, vehicles, private jets and helicopters," she continued.

Ms Blake said he helped the billionaire "splash his cash" in the UK while chasing multiple "highly risky" property deals in Russia.

(Image: Getty Images)

(Image: AFP)

"So he exposed himself to huge danger as part of that role and ultimately he plunged from a window from his fourth-floor apartment in Marylebone, in London and was impaled on the spikes of a wrought iron fence underneath.

"This after warning police and his friends and family for years that he was being targeted by Russian hitmen,” she added.

Scot was part of the Cipriani Five, a group of friends, including Berezovsky, who all died between 2010 and 2014, while his family believe he was killed by Russian hitmen, mirroring BBC drama McMafia.

Explaining the tax loophole Scot used to launder money for the Russians, Ms Blake said the way the law worked at the time meant any declarations Scot made voluntarily to tax authorities he "did so with immunity".

"So the tax authorities weren’t able to notify the police that this money was stolen.

(Image: PA)

“This was what Scott did, he moved money into the UK and put it in a UK bank account, declared that was how he made it and the taxman let him get on with spending it.”

Other members of the Cipriani Five included property tycoons Robbie Curtis and Paul Castle who died after being hit by trains in 2012 and 2010.

And Johnny Elichaoff, ex-husband of TV star Trinny Woodall, jumped off the top of a Bayswater shopping centre in 2014.