Shop owner jailed for wiping CCTV evidence

A SHOP owner has been jailed after deleting potentially incriminating CCTV footage relating to a shooting murder.

Lee Whittle, the owner of Chambers Racing in Bilston, erased crucial security footage that could have helped catch the killers of Dwaine Junior Haughton.

Mr Haughton, aged 26, died after four men opened fire on a car in Valley Road, Park Village in July 2018.

Whittle was instructed to delete footage by Dwain Smith, who was later convicted of murder.

CCTV from Johnson Street, Bilston, showed Dwain Smith and two of the other killers entering Chambers Racing on the day of the shooting – but CCTV from the store itself mysteriously disappeared.

Whittle, 50, initially told police he deleted the footage because he had been riding a motorbike without a helmet and was worried neighbours had reported it. But investigating officers had sufficient evidence to suggest otherwise and were able to obtain a search warrant.

Analysis of a CCTV hard drive seized during the raid showed it had been wiped not once, but four times.

These coincided with calls made between Dwain Smith’s number and mobile phones belonging to Whittle.

Whittle, of Queens Crescent, Coseley, was subsequently arrested and charged with perverting the course of justice.

He pleaded guilty at Wolverhampton Crown Court and was sentenced to ten months imprisonment.

Despite admitting what he had done, Whittle offered no explanation as to what went on inside the store on the day Dwaine Junior Haughton was murdered or why his killers wanted this footage erased.