4:53pm Friday 11th January 2002
A BECKENHAM nightclub owner faces a year behind bars after taking part in a £75,000 scam to con the police out of confiscated drug money.
Timothy Kelly, aged 38, of Henley Place, created false paperwork to convince police the £74,390 confiscated from his boxer friend Hughie Robertson was sponsorship money and should be returned.
But when he found out the money was contaminated with ecstasy, the director of Leisure World Limited admitted his intention to pervert the course of justice.
Leisure World owns a Croydon nightclub and one in Clapham.
Police found the bundles of used notes in a carrier bag in January 2001 when they searched Robertson's car. The boxer told them the money was part of a sponsorship deal.
Prosecuting, Anthony Orchard told Southwark Crown Court Kelly visited Scotland Yard's money laundering team to tell them he had handed over the cash as part of a sponsorship deal, and he produced a contract to support this claim.
Officers later found this had been drawn up only hours earlier.
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