MECHANIC’S DETECTIVE DREAM LED TO STARRING The hapless
FOR a man who had dreamed of being a detective since he was a boy, the sinister briefing was impossible to ignore.
Chris May listened incredulously to TV producer David Harris trying to hire him as a hitman to kill his wife – and seized the chance to be like his hero Columbo and foil the deadly plan.
But he foolishly failed to tip off police. And he ended up being arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder for Harris, 68, who wanted wife Hazel Allinson dead so he could elope with a 6ft 1in Lithuanian prostitute, 40 years his junior.
Chris had recorded Harris, a former producer on The Bill, detailing his £250,000 offer to bump off Hazel, 69 – but then deleted the evidence.
Luckily police IT experts were able to recover the recording and after six months of being “scared witless”, Chris was told he wouldn’t be charged.
Harris was jailed for 17 years at the Old Bailey this month and now mechanic and father-of-two Chris has spoken for the first time of his ordeal.
He said: “I tried to save Hazel from her murderous husband and instead I ended up facing jail, accused of being a hitman.
“I should have gone to the police – and that is a decision I will have to live with for the rest of my life. I’m just glad no one got hurt.
“I’ve been naïve and I got carried away and all this has destroyed my life. “I’ve decided being a detective isn’t for me.” He has now moved the family from Kingston upon Thames, South-west London, to Cornwall “to get away from all the rumours”.
He added: “I’m worried about my wife and children living with the stigma too.”
Chris was training to be a private investigator in his spare time when Harris, of Amberley, West Sussex, turned up at his garage “out of the blue” in February last year. Harris had told a mutual friend he had a debt he wanted collecting and Chris offered a debtor tracing service as part of his fledgling investigative work.
Chris said he sat astonished as Harris instead offered £250,000 for a carjacking and murder.
He said: “He was beside me in the car and started going into all these details about what he wanted doing – I just went numb.
“He said he wanted me to carjack Hazel and kill her by running her over and he would pay me for it. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“I thought maybe one of my mates was playing a trick on me. I might even have smiled because I thought he was winding me up.
“But when I called my friend afterwards, I realised Harris was deadly serious.
“I didn’t want to go to the police straight away because I could see right there what he was capable of. He really wanted her dead. I decided I could deal with it myself and warn Hazel without getting involved with the police. “That was the stupidest decision of my life.” Chris said he decided to go along with the plot and record Harris’s demands so that he could out him to former TV script editor Hazel.
“I thought if I could get evidence against him, I could present it to Hazel and then she could go to police and I could be left out of it,” he said.
“He knew where I lived and I have a young family. I didn’t want someone coming after me who was trying to have his partner killed.
“Plus, I was certain that I could use my detective skills to catch him out myself.”
Harris gave Chris a list of times and places for the “hit”, including outside the 12th century village church where breast cancer survivor Hazel sang in the choir – and the hospital where she was due to have more surgery.
Harris wanted him to kill Hazel, his partner of 27 years, after becoming infatuated with former basketball player Ugne Cekaviciute, whom he had met when she was working in a brothel.
Alcoholic Harris, who met parish councillor Hazel when they worked on The Bill in the 1990s, had two failed marriages behind him – and had cheated on Hazel numerous times.
Yet she had given him £50,000 when they downsized and moved out of London to West Sussex.
As Hazel fought illness and mourned a family death, he frittered her cash away on Ugne.
He pawned a gold watch and diamond ring to help fund his infatuation.
Chris didn’t realise he was one of THREE men to whom Harris offered the £250,000 hit fee, which