Case Explained: Trio convicted of trying to fool solicitor in jury tampering bid – Legal Perspective

Todd: Extra seven year sentence

A convicted murderer and two accomplices who tried to fool solicitors for their criminal associates into reporting jury tampering so as to have the convictions quashed have themselves been convicted of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said William Todd, 61, was 21 years into two life sentences when he orchestrated a plan to help Danny Brown, Stefan Baldauf and four other guilty men walk free after they were convicted of trying to smuggle 448kg of MDMA worth £45m to Australia in the arm of an industrial digger.

Brown and Baldauf were jailed for 26 years and 28 years respectively in December 2022 following an NCA investigation.

When the jury trying them retired to consider verdicts in June 2022, false claims were sent to Kingston Crown Court and police that five jurors had been bribed to convict the men on trial.

The judge paused proceedings for the NCA to investigate. Whoever made the reports did not know that two of those named jurors had been discharged some months earlier, and the trial soon recommenced.

NCA investigators studied court CCTV from the start of the trial and noticed a man enter court when the jury was sworn in but leave soon after.

This was identified as Danny Thomas, 46, of Reading. The NCA said: “Thomas had somehow recorded jurors’ names when they were read out and was operating under the orders of Todd.”

Having failed in their first bid to derail the trial, in August 2022 the pair tried again, recruiting Sheree Avard, 41, from Woking.

“The three hatched a plot whereby Avard would phone Kingston Crown Court and ask for details of Brown’s and Baldauf’s solicitors…

“Using the name Ioana Andrei, she then contacted Brown’s lawyer and claimed she had had a short relationship with a man on the jury – citing a real name that Thomas had captured.

“She claimed the juror confessed to her that he was pressured into convicting the men, and that two other jurors had also been pressured to do the same thing.

“Realising that Avard’s story was likely to be exposed as lies, the conspirators told Brown’s solicitor that Iona Andrei had moved home to Romania so was not available to give evidence.”

They paid for a fake passport in the name of Ioana Andrei to be given to a woman in Romania who they paid, along with a corrupt lawyer, to sign an official deposition that the juror told her he was forced to convict the men. This was then sent to Brown’s lawyer.

“The conspirators hoped that by providing this to the authorities in the UK, the statement would be accepted at face value and the drug traffickers’ convictions would be quashed.”

Thomas was arrested at Heathrow Airport in November 2022, when he arrived on a flight from Dubai, and was found in possession of a mobile phone with the same number used to phone Brown’s solicitor.

“It was also a treasure trove of evidence,” the NCA said, as Brown had recorded conversations and screen-grabbed messages. Todd’s secret phone was discovered concealed in a DVD player in his prison cell.

NCA officers linked the two numbers together and identified Todd as the driving force behind the conspiracy.

Thomas and Avard admitted conspiring to pervert the course of justice and were sentenced at Southwark Crown Court to three years and four months, and one year respectively.

Thomas claimed in interview he was given money to initially approach jurors and offer them bribes to derail the trial.

Todd was convicted by a jury of the same charge and jailed for seven years.

Steve Ahmet, senior investigating officer at the NCA’s anti-corruption unit, said: “This case shows the remarkable lengths that high-harm criminals will go to in order to cheat justice and why they pose the greatest corruption threat to crucial pillars of our society.

“The offenders were determined to help their criminal associates walk free but our team built a rock-solid case against them.”