Essex Boys, The New Generation (22 page)

‘As far as I am aware,’ Staunton continued, ‘the PIRA were never active around Southend. Maybe Alvin drinks in different bars to me, or maybe he’s simply full of shit. I did visit him in prison because he wanted me to give his pregnant wife a lift to ensure that she was safe travelling into London. That is gentlemanly conduct or kindness, not proof of a conspiracy. There’s no way I went snooping around on his behalf. I had never heard of DS Moran before this. Alvin was in a corner; he couldn’t face what was coming like a man, so I suppose he concocted this ridiculous story to get out of it.’

If Alvin was being entirely honest with the interviewing officers and everybody else was lying, it raises the question: if he gave up dealing in drugs in January 2003, as he claimed, how did the police manage to arrest him with a kilo of cocaine in April of that year?

As for Leach being involved with Percival, he had been involved in drug dealing in the past but turned his back on crime in 1995 after the murder of his closest friend, Tony Tucker. Percival was an associate of Leach, but their mutual interest was bodybuilding and fitness at a gym they both used rather than any sort of criminality. At the time Alvin was describing Leach, he was involved in a successful and legitimate car sales business in Essex. He has never been questioned about the allegations made by Alvin, I assume, because the police know they have no substance.

In 2002, Leach published his autobiography entitled
Muscle.
In 2007, a film covering aspects of Leach’s life and the Rettendon murders was released, called
Rise of the Footsoldier.
It’s fair to say that as a result of the book and the film Leach is a very well-known character in Essex and Alvin would have heard of him.

In Leach’s book, which was published the year before Alvin’s arrest, he details his escapades as a football hooligan, nightclub bouncer and drug dealer. In one incident, Leach and others fly out to Tenerife to resolve a dispute between a bar owner and a friend. The affections of a female were at the heart of the matter, but Leach was able to sort the problem out without too much fuss. Whilst in Tenerife, Leach says that he met fellow Essex Boys Jason Draper, Big Joe Wright and his father Frankie Wright. Because Leach had written about drug importation and meeting Frankie in Spain, this may have given Alvin the means to spice up the story he told about Percival’s holiday in Spain and him being forced to courier drugs for Leach when he was caught with the kilo of cocaine. Instead of a sadly all-too-common drink-fuelled stabbing incident, Alvin was able to portray Percival as being stabbed and the terrible accident that followed as a Mafia-type drug deal gone wrong that had resulted in the death of Wright. Knowing Alvin and his desire to emulate the gangster lifestyle, it is more than likely that Leach’s name was added to Alvin’s story after he had read his book or he had discussed it with one of his fellow wannabes. His story about Leach and Webber forcing him to sell drugs was later proved to be an absolute lie.

Before someone is sentenced in these days of equality and justice he or she is interviewed by the Probation Service so that a report detailing personal circumstances can be presented to the judge. The homeless or unemployed, or those otherwise in genuine need, are generally sent to prison and those with a wife, children, a job and a home are often spared the indignity of incarceration. The thinking is that jailing a family man will cause his innocent wife and children to suffer. Society as a whole is apparently punished if a taxpayer is jailed because the public purse has to fund his upkeep whilst he is inside. Those with nothing are decreed to be an existing strain on the limited resources of the welfare state and so sending them to jail seemingly affects nobody. The fact that a person with a stable background should have thought long and hard about the consequences of his actions before risking losing it is generally ignored.

When Alvin met the probation officer appointed to write his report, he knew exactly what he was required to say in order to attract maximum credit. He was going to have to claim that he had acted under duress and that any punishment he received would punish his innocent wife and child more than it would punish him.

Alvin told the probation officer that following the death of his good friend Dean Boshell he had become very low and depressed. He claimed that he was diagnosed as suffering from depression and his condition had become so dire he began to ‘self medicate’ with cocaine. Initially, he only used the drug socially but after moving to the Benfleet area of Basildon he had become increasingly involved with heavy cocaine users. As a result Alvin’s habit had spiralled out of control to the point where he was using up to £250 worth of the drug per week, though he said he had managed to conceal his drug dependency from his wife. When refurbishments were required at his home, he had secured a £10,000 loan from drug dealers with whom he associated and a further £5,000 from them at a later date.

At first there were no problems with the arrangement, but Alvin said as his drug habit escalated he fell behind with the repayments and relations between him and his creditors began to sour. In December 2002, matters came to a head when Alvin was confronted by a number of men from this gang who demanded their money back. Alvin had asked them for more time to pay, but the men refused to listen.

Alvin said that he was stabbed in the leg and then beaten with a hammer. As he lay on the floor bleeding, he was told that if he did not pay or somehow work the debt off, future attacks would involve not only him being hurt but also members of his family.

As he told the shocked probation officer his story, Alvin had struggled to keep his composure. He said he had initially refused to comply with the gang’s requests, but when they threatened him and demanded the full amount he reluctantly agreed to work off some of the debt by making a delivery of cocaine. It was whilst transporting a kilo of the drug from Leigh-on-Sea to Canvey Island on behalf of the gang that he had been arrested.

Alvin said that while he was in prison his wife had been accosted by gang members and forced to withdraw £20,000 from their savings in order to repay the debt. Despite handing over this money, his wife continued to receive threatening phone calls and death threats, one of which was a funeral wreath delivered to her address with a card which read, ‘With deepest sympathy for you. Tell him to keep his trap shut or these will be yours. May it help you to remember that friends are always there.’

In a note posted through her letterbox, which had been made using letters cut from a newspaper, the gang had warned, ‘We want our fucking money. Sort it, or we will sort you.’

Alvin claimed that these threats against his family were intended to dissuade him from giving information to the police about the gang and that was why he had refused to answer police questions when he had been arrested.

After hearing Alvin’s tale of woe, the well-meaning probation officer wrote in his pre-sentence report: ‘Given the circumstances surrounding this offence and further information provided within this report, if the court feels that only a custodial sentence can be justified I would ask that any term of imprisonment imposed be as short as possible in order to limit further pressure upon Mr Alvin’s family, who have already suffered significantly as a result of this offence.’

Knowing the importance of shoring up a fictitious story with factual evidence, Alvin produced a medical certificate to ‘prove’ that he had been stabbed and beaten by the loan sharks to whom he owed money. This certificate stated that he had attended a doctor’s surgery around Christmas 2002, suffering from cuts to his hands and leg. These were, the document said, ‘allegedly caused by a knife’. Alvin’s wife had already reported the death threats, letters and funeral wreath she had received to the police, so it’s unlikely that any judge would have doubted the authenticity of Alvin’s dreadful plight at the hands of such an evil drug gang.

On 10 July 2003, Alvin appeared at Basildon Crown Court for sentencing. When asked by the judge if he had anything to say in mitigation, Alvin acknowledged that he was aware that the only sentencing option available to the judge for such a serious offence was a custodial sentence; however, he begged the judge to consider how much he had changed in the past few years of his life.

‘My past offending is shameful,’ he said, ‘and I’m far from proud of my previous convictions, but I have changed in the past few years. I have got married to a wonderful, caring woman and together we have bought a house. We have a baby and have another on the way. I started my own business three years ago, which has been steadily growing, and I normally employ up to six people. I know the offence I committed was both stupid and irresponsible, and I have no one else to blame but myself. I know this is no excuse, but I got myself into a position I didn’t know how to get out of. I now realise I could have, and should have, done things differently.

‘I am now clean from drugs and am receiving help with the depression caused by the murder of my friend [Boshell], which led to my habit. I have helped the police to the best of my ability with everything I know. I ask you for one last chance and for you to consider giving me a shorter term of imprisonment. When I’m released, I want to show that I can live a normal law-abiding life and continue with my business.’

There wasn’t a dry eye in the courtroom by the time Alvin had finished delivering his emotionally charged speech.

But the Damon Alvin sympathy show was not over just yet. Pregnant and dabbing at her eyes with a tissue, his wife Clair listened intently as a letter she had written as an encore to her husband’s performance was read out on his behalf:

I am living between my own home and my parents’ house because I am scared to be at home alone with my son due to the threats that I have been receiving. I have had an alarm and panic button installed, but I still feel unsafe. I have lost my husband, who I love and miss very dearly. We have never been apart before and I’m finding it hard to cope. We are a very close couple and, although I don’t condone what Damon has done, I do feel that I now understand the reasons why he did it. Both myself and my young son are still suffering, as Damon is away from us, and we are still living with the threat that he tried to resolve.

Taking into account the information that Alvin had given to the police, the circumstances that supposedly led to Alvin being forced to courier drugs and the fact that he had been ‘beaten, stabbed and his family left traumatised’, the judge sentenced Alvin to thirty months’ imprisonment instead of the expected six years.

A confiscation order was also made against him for the £31,420 that was found in his washing machine and a further £18,000 from his savings was seized. Justice, on the surface, appeared to have prevailed. Damon Alvin had broken the law and Damon Alvin had seemingly been made to pay. The truth was that Damon Alvin had mocked justice and deceived everybody. He had learned a valuable lesson about doing deals with the police in order to save himself. It was a lesson he was never going to forget.

12

  THE SMELL OF CONSPIRACY  

Detective Sergeant John Moran and Kim
Webber came under intense police scrutiny as a result of Alvin’s intelligence interviews. Their cars had covert listening devices installed and their phone calls were monitored. The few calls that were intercepted between the two men turned out to be totally innocent: they discussed the business of Basildon United Football Club and little else.

DS Moran was the Basildon United chairman, with Webber the vice-chairman. There was nothing sinister in the fact that they happened to know one another; the pair shared a professional working relationship rather than any sort of unethically cosy bond. Both had been democratically elected by the club’s members and so one assumes that everybody at the club, who happened to have known them for years, had no doubts about the integrity of either man.

Being wrong is not yet a crime in this country, though I am sure there is a government minister somewhere looking into this problem. Fixed-penalty fines for errors of judgement will no doubt become a feature of our lives one day.

Webber had been a very close friend of Pat Tate and Tony Tucker. He wasn’t involved in any of their illegal activities, but he witnessed many of the unsavoury incidents that brought about their notoriety. In the mid-1990s, Webber had got involved in an altercation with a man at the Southend Flying Club. Both parties traded punches, but Webber had ended the fight by plunging a beer glass into his opponent’s face. As a result of this incident, Webber had found himself serving a prison sentence when Tucker and Tate had met their deaths. When Webber was eventually released, he learned that the drug empire his fallen friends had once controlled with an iron fist was now a relatively free market. Anybody and everybody was getting involved in what appeared to be a fairly easy route to getting rich quick. Rather foolishly Webber decided that he too would join the herbal gold rush. Previously anti-drugs, Webber reasoned that if the police were not too bothered about people smoking the stuff, he should not worry himself too much about selling it.

Unfortunately for DS Moran, who was totally oblivious to Webber’s personal business, a police surveillance team had watched a man named David Ferguson loading packages into the boot of Webber’s Mercedes in a hotel car park. The police had followed Webber, who later met a man named Raymond Marten. Officers observed as the men unloaded the packages from Webber’s car into Marten’s van. This van was later stopped and searched in the village of Aylesford, Kent. Inside, police found three parcels containing nearly 50 kilos of cannabis. I say this was unfortunate for DS Moran because the find proved that Alvin had been telling the truth about Webber, and so it was logical to assume that he was probably telling the truth about DS Moran also.

At 5 a.m. on Tuesday, 14 October 2003, more than a hundred police officers swooped on just six people in dawn raids across south Essex. Three vanloads of officers dressed in operational overalls stormed the clubhouse of Basildon United Football Club with sniffer dogs. In simultaneous raids, other officers, some armed, burst into a flat, a car dealership and a farmhouse. DS Moran, one of those arrested, was subjected to almost forensic scrutiny. His bank accounts were examined, his home was searched and he was interviewed under caution on ten separate occasions, but not a hint of wrongdoing or inappropriate behaviour was found. It wasn’t for the want of trying by some of DS Moran’s overzealous colleagues.

They had covertly watched and listened one evening as DS Moran had given a friend of his a lift home. This man, David Cusack, had been a professional footballer throughout the 1980s. It was through his love of football that Cusack met DS Moran, who had spent years trying to improve the facilities and fortunes of Basildon United.

Aged 16, DS Moran had joined the club as a striker and was named as their Sportsman of the Year just 12 months later. When Moran had turned 18, he had joined the Police Force. As well as his policing duties, he played for the Basildon Police football team and won six league titles, four Challenge Cups and eight inter-police titles. Whilst still serving with Essex police as part of their major investigations team, DS Moran was elected Basildon United’s chairman. Some time later Dave Cusack was elected club secretary and, inevitably, their friendship was reinforced.

DS Moran had been working at Rayleigh police station one day when Cusack had been brought in for an allegation of drink-driving. Once Cusack had been charged and processed, DS Moran had met him by chance in the reception and offered him a lift home.

When DS Moran was arrested months later following Alvin’s allegations, the police accused him of tampering with the evidence against Cusack and suggested that this had ‘led to his acquittal’. DS Moran strenuously denied doing any such thing. Because DS Moran was refusing to ‘come clean’, Dave Cusack was interviewed by police. In answer to questions about how he had managed to evade justice, the ex-footballer replied: ‘The answer is quite simple. I didn’t evade justice, I pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and was banned from driving.’ Embarrassed but not deterred, the officers began to seek out other evidence to support Alvin’s claims.

He had told them that DS Moran had sold Percival information about the identity of police informants and they obviously knew that Boshell was a registered informant. This led some officers to believe that Percival might have learned of Boshell’s status from DS Moran and decided to kill him. This motive for Boshell’s murder was certainly presented to the jury during Percival’s trial. Unfortunately for Percival, what his defence team did not know and therefore the jury did not hear, was that DS Moran was no friend of Percival; in fact, the detective was actively working towards having him prosecuted.

I have learned from an official and extremely reliable source that DS Moran acted professionally and with integrity in all matters relating to Percival, Webber and the Boshell murder inquiry. When Percival visited Spain, DS Moran also happened to be visiting the country with his brother and a friend. DS Moran’s brother has a holiday apartment near a golfing complex and they had gone to decorate it. When they had finished their task, the trio had spent two or three days playing golf and enjoying a few beers in the sunshine.

Webber knew that his friend Percival was in Spain and had heard through his colleagues at Basildon United that DS Moran had also recently flown there. Adding two and two together and coming up with six, Webber believed that DS Moran had gone to Spain to carry out surveillance on his friend. When Moran returned to England, Webber phoned him, in what has been described as a ‘fishing expedition’. Webber wanted to know where DS Moran had been in Spain, with whom he had travelled there, whom had he seen out there and, more importantly, the purpose of his visit. DS Moran thought that Webber’s questions were extremely suspicious – so much so that he filed an intelligence report detailing the call.

When DS Moran heard about Percival’s involvement in the death of Frankie Wright in Spain, he thought it would be an ideal opportunity to prosecute him. It was certainly no secret that Percival was high on the priority list of persons Essex police were keen to see behind bars. DS Moran had therefore submitted a report to his superiors suggesting that Percival should be extradited from Spain for the manslaughter of a British subject and put on trial in this country.

For reasons known only to Essex police, DS Moran’s proposal was ignored. A few weeks later, DS Moran was walking around a parade of shops near his home when he met Big Joe Wright. DS Moran offered Big Joe his condolences and mentioned that there was a possibility that the man driving the vehicle when his father died might face manslaughter charges in England or Spain.

‘He won’t face any charges in Spain,’ Big Joe replied. ‘We have just helped to bring Percival home.’

As soon as DS Moran returned to the police station, he filed a report about the conversation he’d had with Big Joe and the fact that Percival had returned to the UK. DS Moran’s actions were those of a policeman dedicated to doing his duty. His only failing appears to be that he was courteous and polite to everybody he met regardless of his or her background or history. It’s a pity not all police officers have the same ‘flaw’ in their personality; if they did, people might start respecting them. It’s ridiculous to suggest that DS Moran was protecting or was somehow in league with Percival.

If the jury at Percival’s trial could have heard the truth about DS Moran’s professional conduct, it’s unlikely that Percival would ever have been convicted. Despite Alvin’s allegations and the way in which they were investigated, DS Moran’s unblemished and distinguished career with Essex police remains intact and untarnished.

After being cleared of any wrongdoing, DS Moran told his local newspaper, the
Evening Echo,
‘I had worked for the police for 30 years. It was my whole way of life; it was destroyed and turned upside down. The allegations that I had sold information about the Boshell murder investigation to Percival for thousands of pounds were found to be baseless. There was a thorough investigation by the anti-corruption squad. They took away the computers in my house and all of my documents concerning bank accounts. Every penny that I had – and that wasn’t a great deal – was accounted for. I must admit I was very disappointed by the way the matter was handled. An allegation was made and I fully understand and accept that it had to be investigated. It was the way it was investigated that troubled me. I have always been professional in my approach to cases and I therefore know that the way this particular allegation was handled was anything but professional. As far as I’m aware, I’ve never met Damon Alvin. I know the name because it was me who put his name forward as one of the two people responsible for the murder of Dean Boshell. When you do that in a job where you are dealing with gangland people and killings, sometimes the people who put names forward are going to have their own names dirtied.’

Webber was sentenced to serve fourteen years’ imprisonment, but this was later reduced on appeal to ten years. Ferguson and Marten were both sentenced to four and a half years for their part in the plot. A fourth man named Francis Sims was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment for his role in the conspiracy.

Commenting after Webber had been sentenced, DS Moran said, ‘I guess that will teach him. It’s what you should get for dealing in drugs. He was a member of the football club and managed to get himself elected on to one of the committees. I would never have guessed that he would have been involved in such a drugs conspiracy. In fact, at the football club he was always verbally against drugs and drug-taking.’

Eight brief months after being sentenced to serve two and a half years’ imprisonment, Damon Alvin was released from prison on the condition that he agreed to wear an electronic tag for a period of four months. These tags are tuned into an electronic box in the offender’s home, which sends a warning signal to the police if the person is not within a certain distance of it at designated times. Rather than having low-risk inmates inhabiting prison cells that could be being used for housing more dangerous criminals, the idea is that they are tagged and effectively put under house arrest. This allows them to work during the day but prevents them from roaming the streets at night.

After three long, seemingly inactive years, the Boshell murder investigation appeared to be going nowhere. That was until 2004, when the Labour Government announced the introduction of new legislation. The then Home Secretary, David Blunkett, said that a new strategy to tackle organised crime was needed and this would include a revamp of the supergrass system. The proposals were aimed at ‘getting a grip on gangs who control drug-running, people-smuggling, prostitution and financial rackets’. Criminals who ‘turn Queen’s evidence could win immunity from prosecution or have their sentence cut by more than two-thirds if they shop their gang bosses,’ Blunkett said. ‘Existing criminals who turn Queen’s evidence already have their sentences reduced and are often given new identities, but this will be the first time that this approach has been formalised in an Act of Parliament.’

Nobody knows if Essex police already had a strategy for the Boshell case simmering on some back burner or if news of this new legislation prompted officers to think again. Coincidentally, or otherwise, the police decided to re-arrest Damon Alvin.

At 4 a.m. on the very morning that Alvin was due to have his electronic tag removed, the police stormed his house and took him into custody for the murder of Dean Boshell. At the same time, Kevin Walsh and Kate Griffiths were arrested for allegedly conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

Ricky Percival’s address was also raided, but he was not home at the time. His brother Danny had just got back from a night out when armed officers who mistakenly believed that he was Ricky dragged him naked from his bed. Bleary eyed and confused, Danny, who had retired to bed just half an hour earlier, tried to explain to the police who he was, but it took him 30 minutes to convince them.

Alvin was taken to Harlow police station for questioning, but on the advice of his legal representative he made no comment when interviewed. He did, however, produce a written statement. In this he explained that he liked Boshell and had no reason to fall out with him, and certainly had no reason to want to kill him. Vehemently denying that he had planned to commit a burglary with Boshell on the night of the murder, Alvin added, ‘If I was doing something really serious like that, I would not have relied on Dean.

‘I simply do not know who killed Dean,’ he continued. ‘When I was taken out of prison to Gravesend police station, the officers told me that they knew I had nothing to do with the murder. They said they believed it was Ricky Percival who was responsible for the killing. They offered me all sorts of deals, which I refused. I said I didn’t know anything about Dean’s death and so was unable to do a deal and implicate Ricky, even if I had wanted to.