Benefit Cheat Labour Councillor Resigns - Five Months Late

A benefit cheat Labour councillor, who falsely protested her innocence when charged, has eventually resigned her seat five months after being convicted - potentially pocketing an extra £4,000-plus in allowances.

Keadean Rhoden, 24, illegally claimed housing benefit between 2007 and 2009 while a psychology student at London Metropolitan University and employed as as a cashier -making her first court appearance six weeks after taking the Southwark Council Lane Ward, Peckham seat in May 2010.

Rhoden, of Decima Street, Peckham vowed: "I am innocent. I will be pleading not guilty and will work vigorously to clear my name so I can get on with the job of serving the people who elected me."

She was convicted at Tower Bridge Magistrates' Court in November, last year and was sentenced to 200 hours community service work, but only resigned her seat yesterday.

Rhoden had been suspended from the Labour party and the party's council group, but was still entitled to an annual £10,000 allowance as a sitting councillor.

She turned up at only one of the fifteen public meetings she was expected to attend since October, 2010.

Southwark's Labour leader Peter John had urged her to quit since the conviction, but defended his party's selection procedure.

"I looked into it and I am not concerned about our vetting process," he said. "There are no questions we could have asked that would have brought this to light. I would have expected a Labour candidate to have raised any concerns they have of this nature."

Her profile on Southwark Council's website has been deleted.

Rhoden was previously a Prince's Trust Ambassador, ran a youth project in Bermondsey and stood for election, she claims, so the voice of young black women in the area could be heard.

"I live in Southwark where black and ethnic minority women are particularly under-represented in the council," she announced before winning her seat. "I want to see more women my age getting involved and putting a different perspective across from the younger generation.

"I also want to encourage more young women from minority backgrounds to get involved in making decisions. Many young people are not even aware of the decisions councils make on their behalf.

"By standing, I want to empower these people and make them realise they can be part of their community otherwise we become complacent and oblivious to changed happening all around us."

Church-Going Accountant Denies Involvement In Bogus Medicine Scam

An accountant accused of a multi-million pound counterfeit-medicines plot - Europe's biggest ever - has told a jury he was simply helping his brother and did not know the drugs were Chinese-manufactured fakes.

Ian Gillespie, 58, of The Green, Marsh Baldon, Oxford told Croydon Crown Court in the fourth month of his trial: "He said he had the products tested and they were fine. I believed him."

Charges were brought following a two-year investigation by the Medicines and Health Care products Regulatory Agency, part of the Department of Health into Consolidated Medical Supplies Ltd. (CMS).

Medicine watchdogs ordered a Class One recall of all suspected drugs - taken by heart and cancer patients and the mentally ill - resulting in shelves cleared in pharmacies all over the country.

Five men, including Ian's brother Peter Gillespie, 64, of Carey Close, Windsor are accused of being motivated by "pure greed" when selling three types of expensive fake drugs - with approximately 100,000 doses ending up in patients hands.

Ian Gillespie, a parochial church councillor and deputy church warden, worked for a firm of chartered accountants before troubleshooting for two accountancy employment agencies.

He was his brother's accountant at Staines-based Discpharm until it folded and assisted his sibling in setting-up CMS.

"Peter asked me if I would like to come along and help. He did not promise me I would be paid and as I was unemployed at the time I went along," Ian told the court.

His role was limited to cleaning and decorating the premises, he claimed, and did not get involved in the day-to-day running of the company.

"I believed Peter was the buying agent, the consultant for the company."

Ian guaranteed a £50,000 loan for CMS to buy their old Discpharm machinery, which was used to re-package the bogus Chinese drugs, but the defendant insisted this did not put him at the centre of the plot.

"I did not want to sign it at first. It was a lot of money," Ian told the jury. "Peter told me if I did not everyone there would not have a job so with great reluctance I signed."

Throughout the period of the alleged conspiracy Ian was employed by Hillingdon Primary Healthcare Trust and he insisted the accountancy services he provided via his company ACO Consultants Ltd. took up the bulk of his time.

"I still had a little contact. I was doing the VAT returns for CMS," he said. "I thought it was the same operation as at Discpharm."

He also agreed to do "four or five" deliveries for the company.

"I hired a van, loaded the pallets on, and drove it to wherever it was going to go," Ian told the court. "Peter asked me to do it. I did not think it was strange."

After a co-defendant resigned his CMS directorship Ian did become a director of the company for a short time, simply to help his bankrupt brother, he claimed.

"I wanted to assist in keeping the company alive and assist my brother. I believed what he said."

He denied knowing the drugs only had a 70% strength. "I would never have been a director if I had known that."

His brother Peter told the jury he was devastated to discover during a meeting on the banks of Lake Geneva the supplies from his French contact were counterfeit.

"I had never heard that until I heard it in this courtroom," insisted Ian. "I love my brother, but I am very angry and upset."

The charges relate to 'Casodex', used to treat advanced prostate cancer, 'Plavix', a drug prescribed to prevent blood clots and prevent heart attacks for angina patients and 'Zyprexa' a anti-psychotic drug prescribed to schizophrenic and bipolar patients.

The other defendants are: Ian Harding, 58, of Lower Westwood, Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire; James Quinn, 69, of Gillespie House, Holloway Drive, Virginia Water, Surrey and Richard Kemp, 61, of School Lane, Y Waen, Flint Mountain, Clwyd.

All five have pleaded not guilty that between January 1, 2006 and June 30, 2007, they conspired together and with others to defraud pharmaceutical wholesalers, pharmacists, the public and holders of Intellectual Property Rights in pharmaceuticals by dishonestly distributing for gain counterfeit medicines.

They also deny two counts each of selling or supplying the three drugs without authorisation and selling or supplying counterfeit goods, namely the three medicines, between January 1, 2006 and June 30, 2007.

Peter Gillespie alone denies one count of breaching a company director disqualification order between July, 2005 and June, 2007, following his bankruptcy.

The drugs were manufactured by the notorious Chinese pharmaceutical counterfeiter Lu Xu aka Kevin Xu, currently serving a prison sentence for a similar scam in the United States.

His bogus drugs were imported via Singapore and Belgium before being ferried and driven into the U.K and distributed by the five defendants, allege the prosecution.

Trial continues............

Accountancy Student Will Be Counting Years Behind Bars For Smuggling Cocaine

A budding accountant's career lies in tatters after he received nine years imprisonment for helping smuggle £150,000 worth of cocaine from the Caribbean, which he planned to convert into lucrative 'crack'.

Francois Roberts, 33, of Tideslea Path, Plumstead, South East London "obliterated" his future, Croydon Crown Court was told after booking the smugglers' hotel room and downloading a 'cocaine handbook' with instructions on how to convert the drug.

He pleaded guilty three days before his trial was due to start to being knowingly concerned in the importation of 1.5 kilos of cocaine, which contained 823 gms at 100% purity, at Gatwick Airport on March 23, last year.

"He has got his whole career ahead of him as an accountant, having nearly completed his qualifications," Mr. Roger Carne, defending, told the court. "Through his involvement in this matter he has set back everything and it has completely obliterated all that he has achieved."

Prosecutor Mr. Christopher Kerr told the court a second man - who later received six years imprisonment - was caught trying to smuggle the cocaine through Gatwick Airport and paperwork on him proved Roberts booked the London Olympus Hotel, Stratford, East London for him.

Customs men eventually captured Roberts on June 20 and on his laptop were found instructions he had downloaded on how to mix cocaine with hydrochloric acid and produce 'crack'.

He had also ordered the acid along with test tubes and other chemical equipment and had transferred £10,000 to the island of St. Vincent. "The prosecution say that was for the importation," added Mr. Kerr.

The first-time offender, a regular churchgoer, with three 'A' levels, who had reached Level Three Accountancy initially claimed his wife had ordered the equipment and the money transfer was for a car import deal.

"He will pick up the reigns of his accountancy career, complete his course and make people proud of him again," said Mr. Carne. "He has learned his lesson at a very high price."

Sentencing Roberts Judge Stephen Waller told him: "Who would think a young accountancy student would be involved in this way?

"You are an intelligent man. You must have known what you were doing and that it would lead to people becoming addicted to cocaine and crack. You were involved knowingly and deliberately."

"It Was Not My Business" Says Ex-Director Accused Of Fake Medicine Scandal

An ex-company boss - accused of a multi-million pound plot to sell fake Chinese-made life-saving drugs - told a jury: "It was not my business."

Bristol-born Ian Harding, 58, of Lower Westwood, Bradford-on-Avon is standing trial with four other men who all deny being motivated by "pure greed" in Europe's biggest-ever counterfeit-medicine scandal.

Medicine watchdogs ordered a Class One recall of all suspected drugs - taken by heart and cancer patients and the mentally ill - resulting in shelves cleared in pharmacies all over the country.

Charges were brought following a two-year investigation by the Medicines and Health Care products Regulatory Agency, part of the Department of Health into Consolidated Medical Supplies Ltd. (CMS).

The company, of Unit 14, Sherrington Way, Lister Road, Industrial Estate, Basingstoke, had its Wholesale Dealers Licence revoked by the MHRA on January 8, 2008.

Former roadie Harding, who toured with Mudd and Kid Creole and the Coconuts, told Croydon Crown Court he was a CMS director in name only.

He had been one of the top salesmen at Staines-based Discpharm - a pharmaceutical wholesalers - earning £70,000 a year and switched to Kemco, run by one of his co-defendants, when the company folded.

Meanwhile, alleged ringleader Peter Gillespie, 64, of Carey Close, Windsor, Berkshire, who was bankrupt and banned from being a company director convinced Harding to become a director at new venture CMS.

"It was basically his company. He was running it and telling people what to do, not the other way around," Harding told the court in the third month of the trial.

He insisted his job with Kemco occupied all of his time and he was not involved in the day-to-day running of CMS.

"I think I only went to the CMS premises once as a director, I did not even have a key," Harding told the jury.

"I only went there once because Peter asked me to sign some cheques.

"I never bought anything for CMS or sold anything for CMS."

Harding said Peter was an expert in profiting from the importation of French-manufactured medicines and re-packaging them for the U.K. and continental markets.

"He is the best buyer in the business. A good honest man to deal with," said the defendant. "I did not know how it worked or where it came from, but I knew it was profitable.

"It was not my business."

The other defendants are: Peter's brother Ian Gillespie, 58, of The Green, Marsh Baldon, Oxford; Ex-Kemco boss Richard Kemp, 61, of School Lane, Y Waen, Flint Mountain, Clwyd and James Quinn, 69, of Gillespie House, Holloway Drive, Virginia Water, Surrey.

Half of 73,000 packets of counterfeit pharmaceuticals were recovered - leaving approximately 100,000 doses of fake medication in the hands of patients.

The charges relate to 'Casodex', used to treat advanced prostate cancer, 'Plavix', a drug prescribed to prevent blood clots and prevent heart attacks for angina patients and 'Zyprexa' a anti-psychotic drug prescribed to schizophrenic and bipolar patients.

All five have pleaded not guilty that between January 1, 2006 and June 30, 2007, they conspired together and with others to defraud pharmaceutical wholesalers, pharmacists, the public and holders of Intellectual Property Rights in pharmaceuticals by dishonestly distributing for gain counterfeit medicines.

They also deny two counts each of selling or supplying the three drugs without authorisation and selling or supplying counterfeit goods, namely the three medicines, between January 1, 2006 and June 30, 2007.

Peter Gillespie alone denies one count of breaching a company director disqualification order between July, 2005 and June, 2007, following his bankruptcy.

The drugs were manufactured by the notorious Chinese pharmaceutical counterfeiter Lu Xu aka Kevin Xu, currently serving a prison sentence for a similar scam in the United States.

Trial continues...................

'Costa Del Crime' £10m Boiler Room Scam Smashed

A gang of ‘boiler room’ fake-shares fraudsters swindled £10m out of hundreds of middle-aged and elderly investors while living the high-life on the Costa del Sol, a jury has been told.

They lived in adjoining Malaga apartments and bought Rolls Royce, Bentley, Ferrari, Maserati and BMW vehicles after duping U.K. investors into parting with their savings for worthless shares.

In a coordinated swoop City of London Police arrested the ringleaders as they visited family in the North of England for Christmas and New Year.

“The money went into a black hole,” prosecutor Mr. Peter Stage told the Harrow Crown Court jury. “Investors are sending money after money after money across.”

Six of the ‘boiler room’ plotters have pleaded guilty and will be sentenced at the conclusion of the trial.

They are: Mark Brannan, 28, of Arlington Avenue, Newcastle upon Tyne; Sam Hamed, 25, of Byland Court, Washington, Tyne and Wear; Dean Hamilton, 26, of Cleeve Court, Washington, Tyne and Wear; Scott Henderson, 31, of Morgan Street, Sunderland; Babatunde Aluko, 29, of Clarence Avenue, New Malden, Surrey and 29 year-old George Abrue, of no fixed abode.

Hamed, Henderson, Aluko and Abrue have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to money launder and Brannan and Hamilton have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud only.

Anton Deach, 25, (pictured) of Heaton Street, Prestwich, Manchester has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to money launder and his trial is expected to last three weeks.

They were arrested on December 30, 2009, with Henderson captured at his girlfriend’s address in Pheasant Moor, Washington before police searched a room he rented in nearby King Henry Court, Castletown.

“It was an Aladdin’s cave of items used in fraud,” said Mr. Stage, explaining the room contained blank share certificates, bogus company information and rubber gloves.

Police also found evidence of payments to Deach of 10,000 and 2,000 Euros, but this represented a tiny part of his profits from the fraud, added the prosecutor.

“Deach was helping organise the new boiler room in October, 2009 and he said he was earning 30,000 Euros a month,” said Mr. Stage. “That is a pretty damning piece of evidence.”

Police also seized a Maserati stored in a Barcelona garage and an image of the vehicle – sporting a DCH registration - was Deach’s screensaver on his Blackberry.

The prosecution claim Deach managed a boiler room based in the garage of a Spanish villa after it was moved from offices above a row of shops in Majorca.

The gang were hired by ringleader Abrue – who has since been extradited from Sweden – a fraudster with a string of aliases who used fake identity documents, including passports and driving licences.

“Money comes in from investors and then goes into another Abrue account before being shuffled and moved on,” explained Mr. Stage. “Abrue was the man in control and got the most out of this fraud.”

The sales team pocketed 25% of all sales, with managers earning an extra 10% and they were supported by convincing websites, glossy brochures, fakes share certificates and other bogus company documents.

A total of 138 defrauded investors have given statements to police – including a ‘Top Fifty’ list of the biggest losers many of who lost hundreds of thousands each - including one investor who lost over £1m.

The jury were told Deach used the aliases Jason Vaughan and Thomas Thorpe, employing the latter to con £78,000 life savings out of one elderly gentleman.

“Deach comes from and was arrested in Manchester and one investor remembers a man with a Manchester accent unlike the other Geordie defendants,” said Mr. Stage.

The ‘boiler room’ specialised in pressure-selling techniques to sell shares in socially responsible renewable energy companies – promising huge returns.

A carefully scripted text was prepared for sales staff to learn with tips on how to answer difficult questions and rebut concerns voiced by potential investors.

Police found such a script for ‘Prestige Gold Crest’ on Deach’s laptop, claiming it was a company listed on the London Stock Exchange and had contracts with the Indian and Chinese governments, plus the I.M.F. and Central European Bank.

“Total bilge, no question of that,” Mr. Stage told the jury. “Whoever is using the script is giving advice to buyers and talking about undervalued shares and building up to bigger and better things.”

Investors were fleeced of even more cash when the gang demanded they pre-pay an 18% tax bill on dividends they were never going to receive anyway.

The jury were told Deach must have known what was going on.

“If you were in that boiler room how could you not know what was going on, with phone calls all day long and white sales boards on the walls,” said Mr. Stage.

The sales staff lived rent-free in a large resort complex – with Abrue picking up the tab – and were chauffeured into work every day.

Police later found a 5,000 Euro payment to Deach as early as July, 2009. “The Crown say Deach is in a location unknown working for George at this time.”

They also found mobile phone and email evidence of sales staff urging Deach to sort out wages.

“Why involve Deach if he has not got any pull?” asked Mr. Stage. “Computer evidence also shows he is looking at trades and past trades when he became manager.

“All the main players, people who have been charged, had Deach’s phone number.”

Trial continues……………

"I Have Really Been Screwed" Says Businessman In Bogus Medication Scandal

A successful businessman, who denies knowingly funding the mass importation of fake life-saving drugs, told a jury he has "hate" for the alleged co-conspirator who talked him into the deal.

"I feel as if I have really been screwed by him," Richard Kemp, 61, of School Lane, Y Waen, Flint Mountain, Clwyd told Croydon Crown Court.

The ex-boss of pharmaceutical wholesaler Kemco claims he was used by alleged ringleader Peter Gillespie, 64, of Carey Close, Windsor, Berkshire.

"Do you want me to say I hate the man for what he has done?" asked Kemp from the witness box. "Because that is how I feel inside."

Medicine watchdogs ordered a Class One recall of all suspected drugs - taken by heart and cancer patients and the mentally ill - resulting in shelves cleared in pharmacies all over the country and half of the 73,000 fake packs recalled

The other defendants are: Peter's brother Ian Gillespie, 58, of The Green, Marsh Baldon, Oxford; Ian Harding, 58, of Lower Westwood, Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire and James Quinn, 69, of Gillespie House, Holloway Drive, Virginia Water, Surrey.

"I am very unhappy with the way he has used my name on the documents," Kemp told the jury. "I am annoyed and have been used."

After twenty-five years of trading Kemco - which enjoyed a £4-£5m annual turnover - was shut down by the Medicines and Health Care Products Regulatory Agency, part of the Department of Health.

Kemp funded Basingstoke-based Consolidated Medical Supplies (CMS) and agreed to bankroll the purchase of Zyprexa tablets - an anti-psychotic drug - at a cost of 400,000 Euros.

He drove Peter Gillespie in his delivery van to a warehouse near Brussels Airport, Belgium to collect the stock - knowing they were Chinese-manufactured fakes, insist the prosecution

"I did not know it was coming from Singapore," claimed Kemp. "I trusted Peter and assumed everything was in order. Everything just happened and I got dragged along.

"This was obviously not the normal deal that you would expect. It was spur of the moment and I should have done more due diligence."

The 'Singapore Airlines Cargo' stickers on the boxes should have rang alarm bells, say the prosecution, but Kemp said: "I did not notice the stickers, I was more interested in the stock."

Kemp immediately pulled out of the deal because the stock was water-damaged, but the prosecution say the trip proves the defendant knew bogus drugs were being imported and would continue to be imported.

"I believed Peter Gillespie did the right things and this stock was coming from a licenced wholesalers. I would not have gone into business with him otherwise."

Another red-flag, say the prosecution, was Kemp's knowledge the source of the medication was Mauritius-based Multiscope Trading Ltd.

"I thought it was an off-shore office. I did not think the stock came from Mauritius," he insisted.

Kemp maintains he believed all the drugs were French-manufactured and would be repackaged for the UK market by CMS.

"Maybe it was the trip to Belgium I was looking forward to."

Approximately 100,000 doses of fake medication ended up in the hands of patients.

The charges relate to 'Casodex', used to treat advanced prostate cancer, 'Plavix', a drug prescribed to prevent blood clots and prevent heart attacks for angina patients and 'Zyprexa' a anti-psychotic drug prescribed to schizophrenic and bipolar patients.

All five have pleaded not guilty that between January 1, 2006 and June 30, 2007, they conspired together and with others to defraud pharmaceutical wholesalers, pharmacists, the public and holders of Intellectual Property Rights in pharmaceuticals by dishonestly distributing for gain counterfeit medicines.

They also deny two counts each of selling or supplying the three drugs without authorisation and selling or supplying counterfeit goods, namely the three medicines, between January 1, 2006 and June 30, 2007.

Peter Gillespie alone denies one count of breaching a company director disqualification order between July, 2005 and June, 2007, following his bankruptcy.

The drugs were manufactured by the notorious Chinese pharmaceutical counterfeiter Lu Xu aka Kevin Xu, currently serving a prison sentence for a similar scam in the United States.

Double Knife Murderer Caged For Life

A double murderer, convicted today of the “brutal and frenzied” killing of a mother-of-three he met hours earlier, has been jailed for life.

David Baxendale, 40, (pictured top) had already stabbed a friend to death years earlier during an alcohol and drug-fueled attack and was free just over a year when he murdered 38 year-old Sarah Thomas (pic. bottom).

After fatally stabbing her in the throat at her Nutfield, Surrey flat on May 10, last year Baxendale fled to the Costa del Sol via a Portsmouth to St. Malo ferry and was captured after a Crimestoppers appeal.

Baxendale, of Chequers Lane, Walton-on-the-Hill, Surrey was arrested in Fuengirola, near Malaga on June 21, last year and was convicted by a Guildford Crown Court jury after a three-week trail.

"She was subjected to a brutal and frenzied attack and was stabbed and struck repeatedly," prosecutor Mr. Richard Jory told the court. "The fatal wound was to the neck, severing the carotid artery.

"The prosecution say it was this defendant, who had just met her that same day, who inflicted these injuries and caused her death."

Miss Thomas had returned to her flat in The Spinning Wheel, High Street in a taxi with Baxendale after they had met through friends.

Her worried "on-off" boyfriend found her bloodstained body in the flat at 5:30pm and raised the alarm.

Meanwhile, Baxendale had fled the scene on foot, dumping the murder weapon, which contained traces of his and the victim's blood at the foot of a tree, the jury were told.

He also dashed across the busy M23 motorway in his desperation to escape. "He was narrowly missed by a number of vehicles," said Mr. Jory.

Baxendale also dumped his jacket, stained with his and the victim's blood, in woods and dumped more clothing, including bloodstained trainers near his mother's home.

He was circulated as wanted by Crimestoppers and identified in a nightclub and arrested at 3am.

The court heard he had a history of violence involving knives – receiving 11 years in Spain in 2001 – after stabbing an acquaintance 14 times.

He was deported back to the UK in June 2008, but was released from prison nine months later.

Just five days before murdering Sarah, Baxendale threatened to kill another woman he met while attending probation requirements and who had stopped returning his calls.

Detective Chief Inspector Steve Hayes, who led the investigation, said: “This was a truly tragic case.

“Sarah Thomas was the victim of a sustained and savage attack in her own home at the hands of a man she had only just met that afternoon.

“The number of injuries she suffered and the ferocity used was truly shocking.

“David Baxendale already had a history of offences involving knives spanning the last 20 years, including a previous conviction for murder.

“He is clearly an extremely dangerous and callous individual whose propensity for violence knows no bounds.

“He has not shown a shred of remorse for this horrific crime and instead tried to flee the country in a bid to evade capture.

“Our thoughts and sympathies remain today with the family and friends of Sarah Thomas, particularly her two eldest sons, and I hope today has brought them some justice and closure for what happened to her.”