Watch dealer ‘Del Boy’ with low IQ jailed after winking at juror in conspiracy to fix drugs trial
18 August 2023, 12:49 | Updated: 18 August 2023, 12:54
A witness who gave false evidence and winked at a juror he’d been recruited alongside to fix a drugs trial has been sentenced to three years and eight months in jail.
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Laurence Hayden – nicknamed Coventry’s ‘Del Boy’ – appeared in the dock at the Old Bailey after being extradited from Spain, following a failed plot to tamper with the case in 2018.
Hayden, 54, a successful watch dealer from Coventry, was the final member of a team of stooges to be sentenced after they conspired to have drug baron Leslie Allen acquitted during his trial at Warwick Crown Court.
But the plot failed after Hayden winked at juror, Damien Drackley, who was also in on the scheme, as he gave evidence.
Delivering the sentence, Mr Justice Cavanagh told Hayden: "You were a major player at the heart of this conspiracy, not at the head of it, but you were in effect Leslie Allen’s second-in-command.
"This was a compex, carefully planned, and very cynical conspiracy that struck at the very heart of the criminal process.
"Each of the participants in this played a different part. However there are a number of relevant features of the conspiracy that are common to them all, including you."
The bid to fix Allen’s trial failed when members of the jury raised suspicions at the actions of fellow member, Damien Drackley, as they deliberated the charges.
His mother, Lorraine Frisby from Birmingham, had acted as a go-between to broker a deal with Allen and his middleman Mark Walker – known as ‘Walker, the one-legged mechanic’ – for her son to receive £5,000 to help get him acquitted.
But the judge said despite Hayden's low IQ , he was convinced he knew what he was doing.
Mr Justice Cavanagh said: “This conspiracy was inept in many ways and some of the participants were grossly incompetent.
"For the most part, you were not incompetent, save for your idiotic decision to jeopardise the conspiracy by nodding or winking at the jury."
During the trial of Allen in 2018, prosecutors had relied on text messages sent by the drugs kingpin to convict him.
Those revealed Hayden had known Allen, a former boxing promoter from Coventry, with one message reading: "What u saying Mr Alan, do u think I will be able to grab one of them white cakes before u go to the boxing 2nite".
To which Allen responded: "Yes, come now".
In his evidence, Hayden told Warwick Crown Court that a white cake was "an energy bar or protein shake" despite him actually referring to a large stash of highly potent cocaine.
The judge in Allen’s trial dismissed the jury but went on to convict him, handing him a sentence of 13 years in prison.
He was later sentenced to a further five years for his role in the conspiracy to fix his trial.
Drackley, 37, was handed a four year jail sentence after a trial in January.
His mother, Frisby, was handed two years and three months for soliciting the disclosure of jury deliberations.
Mark Walker, who acted as a go-between for Frisby and Allen, was given nine months behind bars. And a sixth member of the conspiracy who also gave false evidence to the trial, Daniel Porter, died before he could face the court.
At the Old Bailey in London, Hayden sighed as he was asked to stand in the dock.
Mr Justice Cavanagh told him: "Jury service is probably the most important public service a member of the public will be called upon to do.
"The consequences, if faith in the jury was to be lost as a result of juror misconduct, are too horrible to contemplate."
Hayden thanked the judge before being led out of the dock.
