9 years for Lawrence suspect in drugs plot

Ring any bells? The Vicar Of Dibley, The Royle Family and Morecambe And Wise are among the re-runs showing over Christmas on the BBC STEPHEN Lawrence murder suspect Jamie Acourt was jailed for nine years yesterday for his role in a multi-million pound drug-smuggling operation.

Acourt, 42, and brother Neil, 43, another suspect in the fatal stabbing, headed a gang which moved cannabis resin worth £7.4million between London and the North-east between 2014 and 2016.

Jamie Acourt had denied the allegations but changed his plea on the second day of the trial.

Crispin Aylett, prosecuting, told the court Acourt admitted involvement in 28 trips which shipped drugs worth up to £5.6million. He fled to Spain in 2016 after arrests of several suspects, including Neil Acourt’s father-in-law Jack Vose, 65, in South Shields, jurors heard. When officers went to Jamie Acourt’s home in Bexley, south-east London, he had already vanished.

Officers broke down the door to get in and while they were there his partner Terri-Ann Dean arrived at the flat.

She was told to get Acourt on the phone and he was told by the officers he should either come to the flat or turn himself in at a police station. But Acourt was on the run in Spain.

Conspiracy

Michael Holland, defending, said: “We do say that it is a mitigating feature to withdraw from a conspiracy, although in circumstances where one of the co-conspirators have been arrested.

“The conspiracy continued without the need to recruit a new leader, a new driver was recruited, but that gives some indication as to how much he was the driving force. It should be a matter of mitigation that he ceased his criminality before he was arrested.

He said that his client was a man who was “overwhelmed” by events.

Mr Holland said Acourt had difficulty facing the press coverage that dogged his life following the Lawrence murder.

“He spent two years as a wanted man in Spain, doing odd jobs, doing building maintenance. He could not face the idea of coming into court again and the amount of press coverage he would face.”

He told the court that Acourt had sought legitimate work as a tradesman over the years but had struggled due to his name.

Judge Peter Lodder QC told Jamie Acourt: “That you played a leading role is in no doubt. Unknown to you, your operations were being watched by the police.”

Neil Acourt is one of six men who have already been convicted and sentenced over the plot.