Husband and wife cleared of involvement in cocaine empire
A husband and wife have been cleared of involvement in a £7 million cocaine empire and money laundering operation after a jury rejected the evidence of a supergrass.
A husband and wife have been cleared of involvement in a £7 million cocaine empire and money laundering operation after a jury rejected the evidence of a supergrass.
Graham Clarke, 36, and his wife Lindsay, 32, from Larkhall, a former police officer, walked free from the High Court today in Glasgow after a five-month trial.
Also cleared was car dealer Neil Anderson, 40, from Cumbernauld, who was accused of being Clarke's business partner in the supplying of cocaine, and Mrs Clarke's mother retired teacher Marilyn Nixon, 65, from Darvel, Ayrshire, who was charged with laundering money.
The jury were out for three days before returning their verdict.
The jurors found the charges against Mr Clarke and Mr Anderson not proven.
Marilyn Nixon was found not guilty and the case against Lindsay Clarke was found not proven, in all charges except one.
She was found guilty of a charge of mortgage fraud and will be sentenced for that at the High Court in Edinburgh next month.
Mrs Clarke claimed she was a property developer earning £82,000 a year in order to obtain a £273,600 mortgage for a property at 2 Monkton Brae, Chryston. Prosecutors will now move to try to seize assets from her.
Prosecutors claimed that the Clarkes lived the high life with no legitimate income to back it up and alleged that criminal money was used to pay for the setting up of the couple's successful soft play business Rainforest in Motherwell.
The court was told that Mr Clarke did not file any tax returns from 2006 to 2012 and his wife, said she earned £10,372.08 in 2006 and £376.03 in 2007 and did not file any returns for the next four years.
But in court Mr Clarke revealed that they had recently paid £931,000 to the tax man and added: “I have had nothing to do with cocaine dealing or money laundering. The only thing I done was not paying my taxes.”
Judge Lady Wise told the jury that the case hinged on whether they believed twice convicted drug dealer David Hunter.
She said if they didn't believe him then the case against the four accused could not be proved.
Outside court businessman Mr Clarke, who owns Rainforest play area in Motherwell, said: “I'm delighted at the result. The jury accepted that David Hunter is a liar. This has been a nightmare for my family. I'm just happy it's over.
“I've always denied being involved in drug dealing and money laundering. My customers will now know that I'm innocent.”
Neil Anderson said: “For four years of my life I went through hell and so did my family. This has caused so much emotional turmoil. The police and the Crown took the word of a twice convicted drug dealer over people who have never been involved in any criminality.”
Hunter, whose nickname the jury heard was Pinnochio, became a supergrass after being caught red-handed at a cocaine factory at Dykehead Farm, East Kilbride, in May 2010, and jailed for six years and five months.
As a result of him turning supergrass his sentence was reduced to 30 months and he only paid £145.45 of the £165,000 the Crown had ordered him to pay under the Proceeds of Crime act.
Hunter was given a new identity in exchange for the information he gave to police.
But in court, as he gave evidence, it emerged that Hunter was a compulsive liar and police had just accepted at face value the claims he made against Clarke and Anderson.
It was only when he gave evidence in court that his lies were exposed.
He was willing to give evidence implicating Clarke and Anderson, but refused to say who his previous cocaine supplier was claiming he couldn't remember.
Hunter told police that Anderson and Clarke had recruited him into the drugs trade when he was at a low ebb shortly after the death of his mother in 2008.
Hunter claimed that Anderson gave him a plastic bag containing £10,000 in £20 notes to pay for his mother's funeral, but in fact it was paid for by Hunter's family.
He told police that he was making £15,000 a fortnight selling cocaine for Clarke and Anderson.
But despite earning this huge amount he stated that he was in debt to the tune of £30,000 and claimed he had snorted the profits up his nose.
The supergrass admitted to police that he had been jailed for 26 months for selling ecstasy, but he failed to tell them that he had been selling cocaine for five years before he claimed he was approached by Clarke and Anderson.
He also omitted to say that years earlier while working as a nightclub bouncer he had sold LSD to teenagers.
When quizzed about this Hunter said: “I didn't lie. I just didn't tell them.”
As a result of the information given by Hunter a massive undercover police operation was launched. Clarke and his wife Lindsay and Anderson were followed and Graham Clarke's car was bugged.
Their homes and businesses were searched and a computer file which appeared to be a tick list was found on a computer belonging to Clarke.
A paper tick list was also found in the Clarkes former home in Monkton Brae, Chryston, where his brother Alan – known as Gordon – was living.
This paper tick list was never tested for fingerprints, DNA or analysed by a handwriting expert.
Clarke claimed that the computer was used by his brother Alan, not him and said that the handwriting on the “tick list” was similar to his brother's.
The court heard that Alan Clarke was involved in the drugs scene and died of a drugs overdose.
Clarke also said that he had given his brother a mobile phone which was linked to calls made to Hunter and others in the cocaine business. He said: “If my brother was here I wouldn't be in the dock. He would be answering the questions.”
It was claimed that Mrs Clarke and her husband were implicated by comments made in the bugged family car during months of uncover surveillance.
But a voice expert, who has given evidence for police in many major crimes in the UK, described the taped evidence as “not reliable” because of intrusive engine noise which made much of it “unintelligible.”
And one of the remarks attributed to Mr Clarke about 'coke in the fan' was made on May 4, 2011, less than three months after forensic scientists carried out tests on an alleged cocaine factory in a Glasgow flat and before the findings were made known.
Anderson was connected to two flats, one in Hamilton where a cocaine factory was found in July 2010 and one in Glasgow where a minute particle of cocaine was found in extractor fan in bathroom.
Prosecutors claimed he paid for these flats, but he denied this. He claimed he just asked the letting agent if she could help out a relative who was coming out of prison in one case and a friend of a friend in the other.
Hunter was an evasive witness and when he didn't want to answer a question he would say: “I had a motor cycle crash in 2006 at Crail, Fife, and because of that I have memory problems.”
No medical evidence was ever put before the court confirming this alleged accident.
Hunter was involved in the Motocross British Championships and sponsored a team of two mechanics and three riders prior to 2008 to the tune of more than £40,000 a year.