Four people have been found guilty of trying to fix a crime boss’s trial by tampering with the jury.
Leslie Allen “a major drugs wholesaler with the means and motive to evade justice” allegedly promised juror Damien Drackley £5,000 to swing the case.
But fellow jurors became concerned when defence witness Laurence “Del Boy” Hayden was spotted nodding and winking at Drackley as he entered court.
They were even more suspicious when Drackley began “aggressively” arguing Allen’s innocence and saying nothing would change his mind.
The Old Bailey heard that despite strict rules about not discussing the case with friends and family, Drackley had given his mother Lorraine Frisby “a running commentary” in calls he recorded on a phone ap.
She had then brokered a trial-fixing deal with middleman Mark Walker, known as the “One-legged Mechanic”.
The weekend before the jury started deliberating, Frisby rang her son to say: “I just had that Mr Allen on the phone... said he would sort you out. It makes him feel a bit better knowing he’s got a face on the jury.”
Jurors in the 2018 trial at Warwick crown court told the judge of their suspicions and Drackley was removed from the case. Allen, 66, was convicted and jailed for 13 years.
Today he and Drackley, 37, of Nuneaton, Warks, were convicted of con-spiring to pervert justice. Walker, 57, and Hayden, 53, both of Coventry, were also found guilty. Frisby, 55, of Birmingham, had admitted the same charge earlier.
Allen was charged over cocaine and cannabis worth £150,000 seized from his Jaguar and his Coventry home.
The court was told he persuaded Hayden to lie for him in court and Daniel Porter, of Coventry, who has since died, to take the blame for the drugs.
The defendants will be sentenced on January 27.
