Towie star acquitted as fraud trial collapses
A£3M diamond fraud trial involving The Only Way is Essex star Lewis Bloor has collapsed after a “litany” of Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) failings in the disclosure of evidence.
Prosecutors claimed around 200 victims, many elderly, were conned after being convinced to buy coloured stones at a 600% mark-up.
Bloor, 31, who joined the ITV2 reality programme for three years from 2013, was accused of being part of the alleged cold-calling investment fraud before his television career took off.
But the case collapsed yesterday seven years after the investigation was launched in 2014 and four weeks into the Southwark Crown Court trial.
Bloor, of Buckhurst Hill, Essex, was not in court yesterday, where he was acquitted of conspiracy to defraud between May 7, 2013 and July 1, 2014 by a jury at the direction of Judge Adam Hiddleston.
Joseph Jordan, 29, from Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, George Walters, 29, from Beckenham, in Kent, Max Potter, 25, of Enfield, Middlesex, Nathan Wilson, 28, of Brentwood, Essex, and Simon Akbari, 27, from Loughton, Essex, were also found not guilty of the charge.
The CPS abandoned the prosecution after admitting material that could have helped Bloor and his codefendants or undermined the prosecution case had not been properly disclosed to defence lawyers.
Prosecutor David Durose QC said the material was “wrongly described”, should have been given to the defence teams and that “the inconsistencies were profound”.
“We have come to the conclusion that we cannot confirm to the court that the prosecution has discharged its disclosure duties in this case,” he said. “We propose to offer no evidence against all of the defendants in this case.”
Narita Bahra QC, representing Potter, called for the CPS to conduct an inquiry into what she called “a litany of disclosure failings”.