Smuggler loses appeal attempt

Judge ‘satisfied’ over original ruling

WALKERS and wildlife will benefit from improvements to one of the natural delights of the borough.

The stretch of Yeading Brook is to be enhanced thanks to a grant from the SITA Trust.

The £41,000 cheque will help London Wildlife Trust adapt the stream in the Yeading Brook Meadows between A CONVICTED drug smuggler who claimed a judge was ‘biased’ against him has lost in his fight to clear his name.

Charles Oluchukwu Akpom was jailed for eight years at Isleworth Crown Court in June last year after he was convicted of being involved in drug importation.

The 37-year-old was Charville Lane and Yeading Lane, in Hayes, by planting and creating conditions for wildlife to thrive.

Access for walkers will also be improved.

Tom Hayward, reserves manager with London Wildlife Trust, said: “This project will offer us an opportunity to improve a heavily modified river channel, present at an address in Newcourt, Cowley, in January last year when undercover police delivered a drug-filled parcel that had been intercepted and opened by a delivery company, found to be containing £300,000 worth of cocaine.

After being sentenced, Akpom claimed police had fabricated evidence.

His lawyers also put forward that the prosecution had failed to disclose important material in the case and not only improving the stretch of water for wildlife but also increasing people’s access and enjoyment of this river environment.”

The SITA Trust makes grants through the Landfill Communities Fund, which uses landfill taxes for environmental improvements. that the charge ‘duplicitous’.

However, a court of appeal threw out the complaints last Friday.

Rejecting the appeal, Judge Peter Rook, sitting with Lord Justice Pitchford and Mr Justice Dingemans, said: “We have read the trial judge’s rulings and the summing up in this case.

“We are quite satisfied that this applicant received a fair trial and that there is no merit whatsoever in any of the points raised.”

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