Two-Time Bookie Bandit Jailed

An East London armed robber, caught on CCTV robbing the same bookies within a month, has been caged for seven years.

Karl Lawrence, 25, (pictured) used a silver handgun during the first raid (pic.mid.) and a knife on the second occasion (pic.bottom) at Coral's in Ripple Road, Dagenham.

Lawrence, of Woodward Road, Dagenham pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to two counts of robbery, possessing a firearm, with intent to cause fear of violence and possession of a bladed article.

He seized around £1,500 in total before detectives from the Metropolitan Police Service's Flying Squad identified and then arrested him.

Detective Constable Fareed Mirza, of the Flying Squad, said: "These were two terrifying ordeals for Lawrence's victims in which he very deliberately made them fear that they might come to serious harm.



"Anyone who is willing to inflict such fear for their own material gain deserves to spend a significant amount of time behind bars.



"I would like to pay tribute to my colleagues from the Flying Squad whose good work has put this dangerous offender in prison."



At 3.45pm on August 3, last year Lawrence approached an elderly male cashier as he returned to his counter and gained access to a secure area.



He assaulted the cashier and pulled out a handgun which he pointed at the man before threatening to shoot him if he didn't fill a bag with cash.



Money was taken from cash registers and a safe, and Lawrence fled with £900 before officers arrived. 



On September 7 at 8.30am Lawrence followed a female employee into the bookmakers after she had gone outside to smoke a cigarette.



As she went behind a counter he rushed in behind her and pulled out a large kitchen knife, which he used to threaten her as he demanded she open a safe.



This time, he took £605 from the venue before leaving on foot.



Once-Deported Criminal Returned To Launder Profits From £2.7M Scam

A foreign criminal - deported from the UK eight years ago - was allowed back in on a spousal visa and in front of his sobbing new wife received two years for laundering £188,700 for heartless Nigerian fraudsters.

Management graduate Osas Odia, 33, (pictured) was booted out of the country in 2005 for overstaying and having a forged stamp in his passport, which allowed him to work illegally, but returned when he married his psychiatric nurse wife.

Croydon Crown Court heard criminal funds from an international £2.7m scam were washed through three bank accounts held by Odia and he continued laundering the loot while on police bail after his arrest.

One victim, Betty McClellan, 62, was shot dead by her husband Hersey McClellan, 63, who then killed himself at their Hyde Park, Los Angeles home on June 20, 2010 after she wired £264,000 to the fraudsters to release a non-existent lottery win.

Odia laundered £77,000 of the couple's life savings, plus money swindled out of a Bristol woman, who lost her home and was left destitute, and an Australian woman, who thought she was sending money to a U.S. Army general in Afghanistan.

Police identified a total of thirteen victims all over the world, who each lost an average of £207,000, after they were convinced they were due an Australian lottery pay-out, inheritance, investment benefit or were sold non-existent heavy plant machinery.

Odia, of Windrush Court, Chichester Wharf, Erith pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder criminal property and was sentenced after his co-defendants so he could complete his degree.

His lawyer Paul Brill told the court: "He is alarmed and upset by the nature of the fraud and did not realise people's life savings were being taken so callously in the way they were.

"His previous conviction was for a false stamp in his passport that allowed him to work. He is not work shy and has a strong work ethic."

Judge Jeremy Gold QC told Odia: "You are a man of some ability and you have just completed a degree and I hope that means you will not be tempted to return to this sort of offending.

"You played a full part in laundering the proceeds of a sophisticated fraud."

As Odia was taken into the cells his sobbing wife Natalie, sitting in the front row of the public gallery, wailed: "Can't I just see him?"

The plot's ringleaders Obinnam Nwokolo, 37, of Chesworth Close, Erith, who amassed a valuable property portfolio in the UK and Nigeria, received six years and four months and Uchechhukwu Onuoha, 40, of Aspen Green, Erith, who entered this country on a student visa, received five years and two months.

Both pleaded guilty at Croydon Crown Court to conspiracy to defraud between October 1, 2008 and September 15, last year.

Another money launderer, Sergius Ene, 44, of Rushden Gardens, Ilford, who received sixteen months in March for a £27,000 'Euromilions' lottery scam on an 83 year-old Northampton pensioner, was jailed for two years and eight months. for laundering £342,400.

Victims were telephoned, emailed or written to by Nwokolo and Onuoha, who between them spent at least £22,500 on stationary supplies as they convinced the dupes to pay for admin fees, insurance, certificates and other charges to release funds due to them.

"These monies were placed in a series of bank accounts and laundered," said prosecutor Mr. Andrew Evans. "The fraud was carried out on an international scale."

An Indiana farmer, believing he had a claim on a £14.9m inheritance, lost over £339,000 and a Venezuelan businessman lost £163,000 buying a mobile crane Nwokolo and father-of-two Onuoha advertised for sale on a Spanish website.

The Bristol victim lost £312,000 chasing a £1.8m Australian lottery win and found herself arrested after paying the counterfeit £158,000 cheque the defendants sent her into her account.

"She was buying a new home and intended to settle the balance from the winnings she was expecting.

"She is now living in sheltered accommodation and feels vulnerable and extremely embarrassed and her family have lost their inheritance."

Father-of-three Nwokolo even bought three 1,350 per-hour letter-folding machines to increase the volume of mail shots and his home contained lists with details of thousands of individuals and businesses.

Onuoha had a pile of 593 scam letters ready for postage when police raided the home he rented off Nwokolo and officers also found a prepared 'script' he used when duping victims over the phone.

Cocaine Courier Caged

A cocaine smuggler, caught at Gatwick Airport with a quantity of the drug as he stepped off a flight last summer, was jailed for seven years and two months today.

Kirk Edward Loubon, 32, of Clement Gardens, Hayes, West London was convicted at Croydon Crown Court.

He was jailed for being concerned in the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of the class A drug at the West Sussex airport (pictured) on August 8, last year.

Loubon was remanded in custody since his arrest and time served will be deducted from his sentence.

He will qualify to be released on parole in approximately three years time.

Disgraced Financier's Benefit Fraud

A notorious fraudster, jailed for funding his Mayfair “lavish lifestyle” with money stolen from investors, claimed housing and council tax benefit on his release despite a £66,000 inheritence from his mother.

Disgraced independent financial advisor Gary Cawthorne, 49, of Bloomfield Road, Bromley has already blown the cash windfall and is repaying his local council at the rate of £20 per month.

Between 2003 and 2007 he stole large sums from his clients, leaving them bereft of their life savings, struggling to pay their mortgages and living in fear of losing their homes.

He swapped him home in upmarket Hill Street for a prison cell after receiving four years and eight months imprisonment after pleading guilty to fifteen offences, which included theft, evasion of liabilty by deception, obtaining a money transfer by deception and fraudulent trading.

Despite never registering with the Financial Services Authority Cawthorne ran a company offering mortgage advice and attracted clients with promises of sky-high returns, often lavishly wining and dining women and convincing them to remortgage their homes.

After his conviction a £450,000 confication order was made against Cawthorne under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

He pleaded guilty at Croydon Crown Court (pictured) today to dishonestly making a false representation in relation to a housing benefit claim to the London Borough of Bromley on or about April 13, 2011, namely that he failed to fully declare his capital.

He also admitted dishonestly failing to notify the council of a change in circumstances between January 2 and May 24, last year.

The court heard his bank account was credited with payments of £35,000 and then £31,000 left to him by his mother, but it has now all been spent.

Jobless Cawthorne swindled £3,895 out of the council between April 11, 2011 and January 2, last year.

He studied for a psychology degree with the Open University while in prison and was released in April, 2011.

Cawthorne was sentenced to a twelve month community order, which includes 140 hours community service work and was ordered to pay £1,000 costs.

Boastful Gangster Jailed For £250K Jewellery Heist

A notorious South London gangster - who boasted about his life of crime in his autobiography - is starting a two year and three month sentence after he was jailed for duping a businesswoman out of  £250,000 worth of jewellery.

Jimmy Tippett, 41, author of 'Born Gangster' initially claimed he was forced into the heist by violent thugs, but abandoned this defence after learning the prosecution planned to read extracts of his book to the jury.

He convinced the jewellery dealer to meet him at a hotel and arrived with a fellow-crook, who posed as a wealthy Saudi businessman's buyer.

During the meeting at the Bromley Court Hotel with Anita Cotton, Tippett distracted her and walked off with the uninsured jewellery, which has never been recovered.

This left the shocked victim with a £99,600 wholesale bill to the Hatton Garden jewellers, who had supplied her with the stock.

Tippett, of Chancery Lane, Beckenham and Mark Spink, 52, of Calverley Close, Beckenham, who received twenty-two months, both pleaded guilty to stealing the jewellery from Mrs Cotton at the Coniston Road hotel on August 29, last year.

A separate charge against Tippett of stealing £48,000 worth of jewellery from a woman in Brighton while on the run was dropped by the prosecution.

In his autobiography Tippett says he was born into a criminal aristocracy, with his father bare-knuckle fighter Jimmy Tippett snr. known as the 'Guv'nor of Lewisham.'

His first arrest was at the age of twelve, he was carrying a gun at the age of sixteen and visiting Reggie Kray in prison.

Ironically, his boasts were used against him at Croydon Crown Court where prosecutor Mr. Julius Capon said: "Mr. Tippett is an author and in a synopsis of his book 'Born Gangster' he says he was involved in drug deals, robberies, bloody fights and dodgy scams.

"He says he has no regrets about his life and makes no apologies for his crimes. He says he has never done an honest day's work in his life and was not forced into criminal activity, but was a path he chose."

Tippett's criminal career has taken him to the Costa del Crime, Britain's toughest prisons and associations with London's underworld.

"Mrs Cotton runs a small company that sells jewellery and many of her sales were made via the internet and she had been in contact with Tippett on the internet and via telephone and text messages," explained Mr. Capon.

A proposed meeting at the Dorchester hotel fell through so Tippett agreed to meet Mrs Cotton in Bromley.

"He claimed he would be with a man called 'Bruce', who was the representative of a Saudi businessman.

"The story was that the Saudi businessman wanted to buy jewellery for his prostitutes and Mrs Cotton was asked to bring some jewellery with her.

"They met in the lounge of the hotel, with Spink posing as 'Bruce' and all three sat around a table and the defendants continued with the scam, asking questions and examining the jewellery.

"Tippett distracted Mrs Cotton when asking her questions about the prices of certain pieces and he got up and walked out with the jewellery.

"Spink remained, but after a short while tried to leave for the toilets and kept trying to escape.

"The victim's husband, who had some concerns about the meeting, was nearby and when he saw Spink he called the police and the defendant was arrested as he tried to leave in a cab."

When quizzed by police Spink claimed he thought it was just an innocent social get-together, saying: "I was just looking at the pretty lady."

Tippett went on the run and was circulated as wanted and was eventually arrested at a Ramsgate Travelodge hotel.

Both defendants have lengthy criminal histories for offences of theft and burglary and Tippett has additional convictions for violence and public order.

Jailing the pair Judge Stephen Waller said: "This was a scam. A confidence trick."

Locksmith Locked-Up For Lock-Up Cocaine

A locksmith, who kept £8.6m worth of cocaine in three safes cemented into the walls and floor of a suburban storage unit, has been jailed for thirteen years.

Charles Court, 27, (pictured) of Friern Close, Cheshunt, Hertfordshire was arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police's SCO7 Central Task Force East.

He pleaded guilty at Wood Green Crown Court to two counts of possessing class A drugs, with intent to supply.

Court was stopped in Goffs Lane, Cheshunt on August 28, last year and brown taped packages containing drugs were found in his car.

Police also seized keys, which opened a lock-up at an industrial unit in St. James Road, Goffs Oak.

Inside they discovered a false wall secured with screws and a locked door behind.



Officers found three safes concreted into the wall and floor and a locksmith helped open the safes.

Inside were twenty-eight packages containing 27 kilos of cocaine.

Acting Detective Inspector Tim Grinsted said: "Tenacious detective work prevented a massive amount of cocaine reaching London's streets and causing the inevitable misery that Class A drugs bring.”



Would-Be Rapist Flees On 'Boris Bike'

A late-night wannabe rapist – who escaped his East London attack on a lone woman on a 'Boris Bike' – is being hunted by police.

Officers with Shoreditch's Sapphire Unit have released this CCTV image of the suspect, who struck in Hackney Road at 2.45am on November 20, last year.

The image shows the white man, riding on a Barclays Cycle Hire Bike shortly before the incident.

He is described as aged between 25-35 years, at least 6 feet tall and of muscular build. 



The 28-year-old woman was walking along Goldsmith Row, about 40 metres from the junction with Hackney Road, when she was approached by the man.

He robbed her before trying to rape her and was disturbed by passers-by and rode off towards Broadway Market.

Officers have traced the passers-by who disturbed the attacker, but are keen to speak to anyone else who was in the area at the time of the incident, or anyone who may recognise the man pictured on the bicycle.


Anyone who saw a man on a Barclays Cycle Hire bike hanging around the area of Hackney Road and Goldsmith Row around this time should contact the Sapphire Unit on 020 7275 3489. To remain anonymous call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Irishman Sectioned After Alleged West End Hold Up

A County Galway man, accused of using a fake gun during an armed robbery bid in London's busy West End, was sectioned under the Mental Health Act when he appeared at Hammersmith Magistrates' Court today.

David Joseph Coleman, 35, of Williams Town Road, Heston, Lee will be held at the Hammersmith and Fulham Mental Health Unit.

He is charged with attempting to rob Gordon Okoye of cash at 550 Oxford Street on February 12 and possessing an imitation firearm, with intent to commit an indictable offence, namely a handgun.

Bearded Coleman, wearing a grey sweatshirt, appeared in custody and his case was immediately transferred to Southwark Crown Court for a prelimianry hearing on February 22.

The court (pictured) was told mental health workers assesed Coleman as having “dilussions and mania” and confuses fact with fiction.

Rasta Says 20 Kilos Of Cannabis Was For Bathtime And Brekkie

A cannabis smuggler, caught with 20 kilos of the drug worth £58,000, has been jailed for two years and three months after a court rejected his claim it was for medicinal and religious use.

Mechanic Aldwin Renardo Gooden, 44, of Gilbert Grove, Huddersfield was caught at Gatwick Airport after stepping off a flight from Kingston, Jamaica.

He pleaded guilty at Croydon Crown Court to importing two packages of herbal cannabis on October 4, last year, but insisted it was not a commercial operation.

Gooden (pictured) told the court he is of the Rastafarian religion and was given the cannabis for free by an “elder” during a trip to his native Jamaica.

He insisted he needed large quantities of the drug to cook with his meals, put in his porridge, bathe in, smoke and mix with Jamaican white rub to apply to his painful joints.

“In my work I lie on a cold floor during the winter, the garage is really cold and is bad for my joints,” explained Gooden.

“I don't take tablets for the pain because they are drugs,” he added, estimating his daily smoking habit at six ounces of cannabis.

Rejecting Gooden's argument Recorder Peter Susman QC said: “I find his evidence inconsistent and unbelievable.

“He says his motivation for importing cannabis is that he cannot afford to buy it, but he also tells me he had no knowledge of it's street value.

“I was also puzzled by the fact he did not go to a doctor for treatment for joint pain.

“If he got that pain from lying on a cold garage floor why doesn't he put a blanket underneath himself?”

The court also heard Gooden was convicted of growing cannabis in 2005.

“It is a very large quantity. He was a drugs courier importing this amount, knowing what he was doing in order to make money from it,” added Recorder Susman.

“I have no reason to doubt the defendant is a fine man in every other respect.”

Old Marlburian Vandalised Scooter And Car After Drinking Session

A posh ex-Marlborough College old boy went on a late-night wrecking spree after drinking with two pals, causing over £3,000 worth of damage to a Piaggio scooter and Audi car.

Landscape designer Ruaraidh Sebastian Neville-Clarke, 27, (pictured) was warned to curb his alcohol intake, which fuels his "over the top" behaviour.

He was raised on a large estate in Shermanbury, Horsham, West Sussex, has a previous conviction for drink-driving and like the Duchess of Cambridge is an Old Marlburian, having attended the £30,000 a year Wiltshire public school.

Neville-Clarke - known as Rory to friends - of St. Stephen's Mews, Bayswater pleaded guilty at Hammersmith Magistrates' Court to causing £546 worth of criminal damage to the scooter and £2,493 to the Audi S5, belonging to James Lumsden, in Epple Road, Fulham on November 26, last year.

He also pleaded guilty to possessing two wraps of cocaine at his address when police eventually tracked him down and arrested him on January 18.

Neville-Clarke was placed on a twelve-month community order, which includes 120 hours of unpaid work, and was ordered to pay £100 compensation to the victim, £85 costs and a £60 victim surcharge.

Prosecutor Miss Rav Chodha told the court: "Mr. Lumsden and his wife were at home and they heard a loud banging outside and saw three males.

"One of them had picked-up Mr. Lumsden's Piaggio scooter, which had been knocked over, and pushed it over a second time."

Mr. Lumsden shouted out of his window and went outside, where the other two men, Christopher and Oliver Maitland-Walker, identified themselves along with the defendant and left the scene.

"He noticed that as well as damage to the scooter there was damage to his black Audi, where the scooter had fallen against it," explained Miss Chodha.

Mr. Lumsden called the police, who drove him around the neighbourhood in an attempt to identify and catch the culprits, and they spoke to the defendant's friend Christopher when they returned to the victim's house.

"He said that Mr. Neville-Clarke was responsible and when officers visited the defendant's address they found the two wraps of cocaine that he said was for his own use."

He told the court: "I do not disagree with what has been said. It was not out of malice, it was all idiotic behaviour that went wrong.

"We were behaving badly and mucking about. I had been drinking."

Bench Chairwoman Deborah Tully told Neville-Clarke: "You seem to go OTT when you have had a few, although you do not have a drink or drug problem. 

"Stay away from too much drink in the future."