Vodka Heiress Caught On Phone By 'CyclingMikey'

Porsche: Marinika Smirnova

Former Miss Russia and heiress to the Smirnoff vodka empire, Marinika Smirnova, was caught driving through Hyde Park while on her phone by road-safety activist ‘CyclingMikey’, a court heard.

The 40 year-old star of Fox TV’s ‘Meet The Russians’ was just one mile away from her six-bedroom £4.7m apartment in Queen’s Gate, Kensington when she was recorded by the infamous YouTuber.

She failed to appear at Lavender Hill Magistrates’ Court, where she was fined £220, with £620 costs, ordered to pay an additional £88 surcharge and received six penalty points on her driving licence.

The model and professional dancer - related to Pierre Smirnoff, who supplied his vodka to the court of Emperor Nicholas Romanov II - was convicted of using a handheld mobile phone while driving along West Carriage drive on December 10, last year.

Lavender Hill Job: Mike Van Erp

‘CyclingMikey’ - real name Michael Van Erp, 50, - was walking his bike through the park when he spotted Smirnova at the wheel of her red 3.8 litre Porsche, with personalised number plate SM11NOV.

Cycling around west London he has captured hundred of motorists using their phones and assisted prosecutions against ex-footballer Frank Lampard; movie director Guy Ritchie, former boxer Chris Eubank and comedy producer Jimmy Mulville.

He has posted the Smirnova encounter on his youtube channel and the GoPro footage was also played in court to the magistrates.

“It was 1.00pm and I was walking my bike on the pavement  in Hyde Park and I noticed a red Porsche in the queue of traffic,” Zimbabwe-born Dutchman Van Erp told the trial. “I noticed the driver was using a mobile phone.

“She had her head down in her lap and I could clearly see the driver was on her phone.”

Van Erp circled around the rear of the Porsche and pedalled up to the driver’s side.

“I saw the lit-up screen on the phone and some changes in the apps she was navigating through.

“As I leaned in the female driver put the phone away and looked at me, a disdainful look and I don’t blame her for that.

“I did not recognise the driver, but I have since searched her and she is a bit of a celebrity.

“I look for road behaviours, not particular people or particular cars, although I do admire her good personal plate.”

Smirnova did not respond to the police offer of a fixed penalty and applied to adjourn the trial at short notice because she is out of the country.

However, this was rejected by the magistrates, who convicted her and bench Chairman John Soones announced: “The phone was in her hand and we feel it was being used.”

He told Van Erp at the trial’s conclusion: “What you do is sensible and you assist the police in collecting evidence.”

Movie Props Pal Of Ex-Gangster Dave Courtney Sentenced For 'Weapons' Stash

Weapons: McGirr

The movie props housemate of notorious gangland hardman Dave Courtney has been sentenced after police found a collection of knuckle dusters and other weapons in the property.

Last month, Brendan McGirr, 56, received a twelve-month conditional discharge, plus £85 costs and a £26 victim surcharge.

He originally appeared at Bromley Magistrates Court alongside Courtney, 64, who had the same charge against him dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service.

However, McGirr, of Chestnut Rise, Plumstead pleaded guilty to possession of offensive weapons, namely knuckle dusters, a dagger and a martial arts throwing star.

The court heard local police visited the ‘Camelot Castle’ address at 6.40pm on December 29, last year to discuss Courtney’s New Year organised bare knuckle fights. 

Courtney was on holiday and McGirr again allowed the police in, this time accompanied by a Sergeant and various weapons were identified scattered around the property.

The officers noticed many swords, some in buckets, but they were all clearly blunt and McGill produced weapons and handed them over to the police voluntarily.

They were hanging on walls and strewn across shelves and other surfaces and none were in locked cases.

Charges Dropped: Courtney

The six knuckle dusters were of various designs and the throwing star is a Japanese weapon known as a shuriken.  

Courtney’s home is a local landmark, bedecked with union flags and flags of St. George, plus a huge side wall mural of the ex-gangster depicted as a knight sitting on a knuckle duster-themed throne surrounded by his men.

In a statement to police Mr McGill said the items recovered were all film props belonging to his company and he felt possession of them was lawful.

He said they were for the purpose of theatrical productions and film and television and were used in rehearsals and were like displays in a museum.

Taking The P***?: Perfumer Harassed By Neighbour's Patio Urine Pour

"Weapon Of Mass Destruction": Mackinlay

A perfumer with a “trained nose” was tormented by her elderly next-door neighbour, who repeatedly threw urine into the basement patio of her £5m Chelsea family home, a court heard.

Anastasia De Brauwere Brozler, 57, spent months trying to find the cause of the “absolutely disgusting” odour, which negatively effected her business as she felt her perfume oils were contaminated.

At City of London Magistrates’ Court neighbour Janine Mackinlay, 81, of Cheltenham Terrace was convicted of harassing Anastasia and her lawyer husband Alain De Brauwere, 60, between September 1, last year and February 10.

The widow, who earns £7,000 per-month from commercial rents, was also convicted of causing criminal damage to the couple’s property and ordered to pay £2,922 compensation for the clean-up.

The neighbours reside at the end of the Grade II-listed terrace, which overlooks the Duke of York grounds near Sloane Square and Mackinlay’s property is currently on the market for £4.75m.

“When the pungent smell first first blew into the kitchen we thought it came from sewage and brought in someone to check,” Austrian-born mother-of-two Anastasia told the trial.

She has corporate and private clients, who range from 'princes, ballerinas, actors and politicians' and runs a perfume school and is the boss of Creative Perfumers London Ltd.

“Then the gasman said it was urine and we thought: ‘Gosh. There must be a leakage in one of our lavatories.’

“In December it was horrific and we put the Christmas tree in the patio for a more elegant touch and had some professionals clean that area.

“It was very unpleasant and it did not cross my mind at all it would be deliberately thrown onto the patio,” she told the court. “It felt really unhealthy to have food stored in the fridge.

“Every time you opened the door this pungent smell of urine would enter the house and we could not open our window. There is also a ventilator that is permanently open that drew in the smell.

“Every time we heard a splash we wrote it down and found out the cause when my husband saw the neighbour and then we asked the Cheltenham Residents Association to access the CCTV.

“We could see our neighbour on the CCTV regularly throwing, sometimes three times a day, disgusting urine onto our patio.

Odour: Anastasia De Brauwere Brozler & Alain De Brauwere

“We would always hear ‘splash, splash’ and it accumulated and really stunk down there. The walls were marked with yellow stains and my fresh flowers literally died.

“It had an impact on my children. We couldn’t have breakfast, lunch or dinner in the kitchen and it impacted me.

“I have a trained nose. I am a perfumer that works from home and I know I’m foreign and that is a big problem for our neighbour, that we are foreign.”

She denied a defence suggestion Mackinlay was aiming for her own plant pots and innocently missed. “She wasn’t aiming at her pots, it is easy to aim at a plant pot.

“My husband went to her house with goodwill, but she screamed that we should go to hell and go back to our own country.

“We have paid many, many people to reduce this unbelievable smell,” Anastasia told the magistrates. “She is extremely angry to me and verbally abusive to me and my children.

“We were surrounded by a lack of oxygen and I had to put scented candles everywhere and plants outside. We could not use the kitchen and I could not work there even though I need running water.”

She said her daughters, aged 18 years-old and 13 years-old, had suffered. “We had serious concerns about our children’s health, my youngest daughter was coughing and we were physically sick.

“We smelled urine even morning. It was disgusting, absolutely disgusting.”

Her Dutch-born husband Alain, a Harvard Law School graduate, who advises City financial institutions, told the trial: “I saw next-door opening and the splash happened that I heard before.

Scent Of Crime: Mackinlay Poured Urine Into Basement Patio

“I ran up the basement stairs and it was clearly wet. It was clearly urine and I heard the door closing of my neighbour’s house.

“I climbed over the fence and rang the doorbell and knocked, but there was no reaction and I called the police.

“My wife has a very sensitive nose and for various reasons this has destroyed our well-being.

“Why did it happen? What had we done to somebody to cause this?” he asked. “I felt almost harassed.”

Mackinlay complained the police came to her door at 10.00pm and she was later questioned at Hammersmith Police Station after an officer pushed their ID through her letterbox.

She did not deny throwing urine from a plastic jug out of her front door, but insisted it was not aimed at her next-door neighbours and she did not intend any harassment.

“I have an arthritic knee and a collapsed vertebra and I cannot always get upstairs or downstairs to the toilet due to mobility issues,” she told the trial. 

Holding up the jug and referring to her belief the De Brauwere’s exaggerated the urine damage she announced to the magistrates: “This is the weapon of mass destruction.

“I wee in it and I dispose of it. I’m afraid to say I throw it out the front door.

“There is no malice. In my eighty-one years on earth I have never damaged anyone’s property and as a founding member of the Residents Association I feel I am a respected person in the area.”

Supported in court by her son and daughter Mackinlay added: “It is not very ladylike, I understand that and I like to think I am a bit more sophisticated.”

Regarding the estimate of damage she said: “That is laughable. No way is it thousands of pounds worth of damage, no way. I am surprised they are allowed to lie under oath, it was a whole lot of lies.”

Bench Chairman Jeffrey Manton announced: “These matters were harassment of the individuals and the criminal damage was reckless. This has been deeply distressing to the people living next door.”

Mackinlay was conditionally discharged for twelve months on the two harassment counts and ordered to pay £620 costs and a £26 surcharge.

She was also made subject to a twelve-month restraining order, prohibiting contact with the De Brauwere family.

Afterwards Alain said: “I don’t see it as a victory. It is a very sad day.”

NOT GUILTY: City Solicitor Cleared Of Dancefloor Punch

Not Guilty: Gush

A City lawyer, who insisted he was defending himself during a dance floor confrontation with an investment banker, has been cleared of GBH.

Property solicitor Barnaby Gush, 30, admitted throwing the punch that fractured the jaw of Jonathan Luke, 32, but said he was acting in self-defence.

At Inner London Crown Court he claimed the banker was drunk and making himself a nuisance at the Ned’s members-only basement Vault bar.

The trial heard Mr Luke aimed a foul-mouthed gay slur towards Gush - apparently due to the defendant’s flamboyant dancing - but he denied this and insisted he was not intoxicated or causing trouble.

After the week-long trial the jury today found property solicitor Gush, of The Merchant Building, Wharf Road, Angel, Islington, not guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm on September 24, 2021.

The Newcastle University architecture graduate claimed Mr Luke shouted: “F*** off you little p***,” as he moved from group to group after midnight.

However, Loughborough University graduate Mr Luke - who needed two metal plates in his jaw - said he was no more than “reasonably tipsy during his company’s end-of-Summer night out.

Gush’s account was that Mr Luke twice bumped into him on the dance floor before moving aggressively towards him as the pair “squared up” in the early hours.

Mr Luke told the court his evening began at The Happenstance, near St. Paul’s Cathedral. “There was a free bar. It was a drinking event.”

After “two or three” beers, “one or two” glasses of wine, plus a shot his group continued drinking cocktails at the Ned, near the Bank of England.

“I was with colleagues and having a nice time and I remember feeling this punch at the bottom of my jaw from the right. It felt like a big, sudden impact, a shock,” he explained.

Punched: Jonathan Luke

“I was not braced for any impact and it was very sore. I felt a bit of a hole in my mouth and it was where the jaw had displaced.

“I hoped I could sleep it off, but the police called in the morning and suggested I should go to A&E.

“I could not swallow and two metal plates were put in to crack the lower jaw back into place.”

However, Gush’s lawyer Aisling Byrnes suggested: “You were very drunk that evening. Do you recall wandering around the dance floor going from group to group?”

Mr Luke denied this, but the lawyer added: “You were making a little bit of a nuisance of yourself on the dance floor. You made physical contact with Mr Gush while he was dancing and it is no dispute he hit you.

“He and his friend moved away and you backed into him harder than before while he was dancing.”

Mr Luke denied Gush’s account of events, insisting: “I didn’t really bump into anyone.”

He denied shouting the foul-mouthed gay slur. “Had you seen him dancing flamboyantly with his friends?” asked the lawyer.

Gush says he told Mr Luke: “Why do you keep bumping into me? Leave me alone.”

The court heard there was talk of “let’s go outside,” with Gush recalling telling the taller Mr Luke: “I’d rather you f*** off.”

The six-foot two inch banker denied moving towards the defendant with his right arm and shoulder at Gush’s “neck and chest height” moments before the blow.

Security staff intervened and called the police as Mr Luke, who had blood on his chin and shirt, was being attended to.

Prosecutor Lewis MacDonald told the jury Gush replied “no comment” when interviewed by police. 

“He now suggests he was acting in self-defence because he felt threatened by Mr Luke, but the complainant did not commit any act of violence and we say nothing justified the defendant punching him in the face with such force.

“Witnesses describe them on the dance floor squaring-up and Mr Gush punching Mr Luke in the face and is heard shouting: ‘Let’s take this outside,’ or: ‘Let’s have a fight.’

“Security  staff at The Ned immediately intervened and separated the men and called the police, waiting with Mr Gush until he was arrested.