Jail let-off for Quaye despite gun threat row
Scot attacked bar manager
SCOTS singer Finley Quaye was spared jail yesterday despite threatening to shoot a bar manager during a row after a concert.
Edinburgh-born Quaye, 45, punched Robert Jenei in the face, attacked a car and snarled racist abuse after playing at London’s Troubadour venue.
However, he was let off with 200 hours of unpaid work, a £525 fine and a 12-month rehabilitation order following a hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court. He had earlier pleaded guilty to assault.
District judge Michael Snow told Quaye: ‘What makes this offence serious is the level of culpability involved – before the punch you made considerable threats that would have caused significant fear, then you punched this man.’
When asked if he had any work coming up, Quaye replied: ‘No, not for lack of trying.’
The judge said: ‘If you go around thumping managers in the face, I don’t suppose you are going to get much work.’
Quaye, who won the 1997 Mobo Award for best reggae act, told the court he was on benefits and offered to pay the fine at the rate of £15 a week.
Prosecutor Malachy Pakenham told the court: ‘At one o’clock in the morning, the defendant was seen being verbally abusive and threatening towards the victim and security staff, saying he was going to punch them in the face.
‘He then punched him in the face causing bruising to the left eye and kicked a car and broke off a wing mirror. He was heard saying, “When I get out I will f*** you up, not only will I shoot you, I will get a grenade”.
‘When told by the police to stop shouting and swearit. ing, he then said, “You f ****** n ***** ”. When told to stop again he replied to an officer, “I will stab you in the kidney, I will stab you in the windpipe”.’
Quaye, of Earls Court, London, then carried on his outburst after he was arrested, following the September 8 show.
The manager had offered to look for a handbag belonging to a female friend of Quaye, but after looking everywhere he was unable to find it. Quaye became angry and when asked to calm down he became even more angry and had to be held down on the floor.
After calming down a second time, he picked up a bicycle and tried to throw He then went across the road and kicked a BMW.
When officers interviewed him at Acton police station the next day, he said he had not eaten properly since arriving at 4pm to rehearse for his show and could not remember very much.
Quaye described the manager as ‘a diamond’ and said he had always had a good relationship with him, the court heard.
Mr Pakenham told the court Quaye has 14 previous convictions, all related to alcohol.
Hit singles Even After All, Sunday Shining and Your Love Gets Sweeter helped Quaye gain fame in the late 90s.
His 1997 album Maverick a Strike went double platinum and in 1998 he won the Best British Male Solo Artist at the BRITs.
Quaye is the son of composer Cab Kaye and halfbrother of Elton John’s guitarist Caleb Quaye.
But bad behaviour has over-shadowed Quaye’s once bright career. The singer reportedly kicked in a B&B door and called guests ‘c***s’ following a show in Truro, Cornwall, at the start of this month.
In 2016, Quaye was convicted of assault after headbutted a terminally ill friend in a row. He was also found guilty of aggravated assault in 2012 and admitted possession of cannabis in 2003.
‘Considerable threats’
‘Punched him in the face’