‘Dodgy’ dealer cleared of role in death plot
ASELF-CONFESSED “dodgy car dealer” has been cleared of being part of a plot to kill a man who was shot in the head in Aigburth, Liverpool.
Lee Blowes was charged with conspiracy to murder Blake Brown, who was killed near the front door of the bail hostel where he was living in October, 2016.
But, on Monday afternoon, a jury sitting at Liverpool Crown Court took just less than two hours to acquit him.
After the foreman read out the not guilty verdict, 31-year-old Blowes yelled: “Yes!”
He then launched into a foul-mouthed tirade, shouting “rats!” towards the police officers sitting in court.
Blowes, of Melbreck, Skelmersdale, had admitted being a car criminal but not a killer, and denied any part in the “execution” which took place on Southwood Road, close to St Michaels train station.
Blowes helped put false plates on a stolen Range Rover Evoque, and admitted going with an accomplice to set fire to the murder getaway vehicle after the fatal shooting.
The serial car criminal, who has a three-year-old son, refused to name the man who asked him to get involved in acquiring and later abandoning the murder car, which was stolen in West Kirby and burnt out in Heswall.
But jurors were not swayed by the prosecution argument that he knew he was taking part in a plot to murder or cause very serious injury to Mr Brown.
Blowes, who owned two high-powered cars – a BMW M5 and an Audi S4 – told the court that he changed vehicles often, and claimed that he had “free rein” in Ron Hodgson’s Specialist Cars garage in Up Holland, where he criminally made false registration plates.
He had a 15-year relationship with the garage, he added.
He said: “I’ve done it thousands of times before (clone registration plates). An associate would phone me, trusting that I wouldn’t snitch.”
Although he was repeatedly asked to provide the names of his “associates”, or those involved in the Blake Brown murder, he would only reply: “No, sir.”
Blowes revealed that he had been given £250 to clone the Evoque, the “murder vehicle”. Nobody has ever been charged with the murder of Mr Brown, Mr Justice Davis told the jury.
Blowes denied ever meeting Mr Brown, and, under questioning from his barrister, Nigel Power, QC, said: “I have never met or spoken to this man in my entire life, and that goes for his entire family.”
A sentencing date is yet to be set for brothers William and Joseph Hodgson, who admitted perverting the course of justice in connection with the killing.
William, 32, of Gathurst Lane in Shevington, near Wigan, and Joseph, 30, of Mill Lane, in Appley Bridge, also near Wigan, will be sentenced in due course.
Blowes told the jury that he made up to £600 a week selling registration plates, admitting: “Plates, yeah, I make a good living selling plates.”