James Richards reportedly fled the country following the failed plot
A man who travelled from Liverpool to Scotland to carry out a gangland assassination backed out of the murder plot over concerns about the getaway car, a court this week heard. James Richards, 36, was employed to execute Scottish gangster Ryan Carvil after he was labelled a “grass”.
Gang boss David Nisbet, 35, is said to have wanted Carvil dead as his gang looked to turn the streets of Glasgow into a “warzone”, the High Court in Glasgow heard on Friday, April 24. Nisbet joined forces with fellow criminals Declan McCuish and Anthony Connell, both 35, before Richards was transported from Liverpool to Glasgow.
The group were caught when their messages planning the murder were cracked by police as they gained access to the Encrochat network. In the messages from April 2020, Nisbet suggested three potential hitmen, the Glasgow Times reports, but an agreement was reached with James Richards.
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McCuish was in charge of securing the flat the hitman would use before and after the planned killing by Richards, with Connell said to have messaged his accomplices about a “Scouser wanting to blow him away”, the Liverpool Echo reports.
Richards was collected from Liverpool before being taken to Scotland, but it became apparent the hitman had “cold feet”.
It was heard how Richards shared concerns over the car he would be using to get away from the scene of the murder, with him asking his co-conspirators for a faster car or a motorbike.
After abandoning the plot to kill Carvil, he headed back to Merseyside but was stopped on Monday, April 13, by armed officers.
Richards is now able to be identified by the media after he pleaded guilty to being involved in serious organised crime between April 9 and April 13, 2020.
A warrant is believed to have been out for his arrest following the murder plot before he was later traced to Spain. He was then extradited back to the UK.
John Sullivan KC, defending Richards, is reported to have told the court his client had been in debt to those he bought drugs from. He was said to have realised when arriving in Scotland the murder was not something he was able to do.
Publicly available court documents show Nisbet and McCuish were both convicted of the murder plot against Carvil following a trial in February 2025.
Nisbet was jailed for 13 years and McCuish was locked up for 11 years.
Carvil has since been jailed for more than eight years after police infiltrated a large-scale food delivery-style drug operation in which he was a central figure.
The 32-year-old would travel between his home in Scotland and a property in Dubai, with him partnering with a shisha bar owner Saad Qayyum to flood the streets of Glasgow with drugs.
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