He blew thousands of pounds a week on drugs. He had a safehouse in Widnes used for underworld deals. At the same time, he was carrying a photograph of Michael Howard around in his wallet. In gangster meetings, he would boast about his famous connection. And to cap it, during this period when he was knee deep in organised crime, he received a visit from the home secretary. Shortly before Christmas in 1994, when Howard was the home secretary and John Haase was busy planting guns and plotting bribes, Howard visited Bakerman’s home in Liverpool in his government limo.
SIMON BAKERMAN: One day, Michael turned up at my mum’s house in his government limo. He was up from London for the football. He came to watch Liverpool. I was snorting a line of coke in my bedroom. I had been wasted for days.
I looked out of the window and saw this swish government car pulling up. It was a white Rover and there were a couple of police outriders waiting outside. I was so down I didn’t care about anything. I realised who it was and I tried to pull myself together.
When I went downstairs, there was Michael sitting down at the dinner table. I was so out of my skull I could hardly focus on him. He took a good look at me as I shambled in. There was a look of total disbelief on his face. I don’t know what he must have felt. I just said hello.
He nodded back and said, ‘Hello, nice to meet you again, Simon,’ but I don’t think he knew what to say. I wasn’t capable of saying anything. After an awkward silence, I just walked out.
Drug baron Tony Murray probably met Simon Bakerman through a local dance and drama school for children called the McKey School. Bakerman got to know the big-time gangster James Turner through Murray, and he also got to know Paul Bennett. In the tape recording of Haase and Bennett’s plea-bargaining session in prison, Bennett referred to his connection, who was himself connected to ‘top people’. But Bennett said at that stage that he ‘wouldn’t mess around in politics and everything else’ because he was fearful.
Before they were arrested, Bakerman had visited Bennett’s drug-dealing HQ in Woolton and was reputedly dealing medium amounts of cocaine for John Haase’s pal, though Haase was not aware of this.
19
BRIBE ALLEGATIONS FOUR AND FIVE – THE ALLEGED BAKERMAN BRIBES
Haase’s bodyguard The Enforcer claims that in the winter of ’95–’96 a fourth payment of about £920,000 was handed over. He was told that Simon Bakerman was the link. The evidence to suggest that Bakerman (who was later convicted and jailed for a £20-million drug conspiracy) was involved is compelling:
– a confession by Haase;
– the disproving of Bakerman’s denials claiming that he was out of the country or confined to a wheelchair at the time;
– Bakerman had known Bennett through the world of drug dealing;
– he knew an alleged bagman called Mr A;
– at the time, Bakerman was working directly for a gangster who was supplying guns to Haase for phoney planting;
– he was also working for a crime family who were planting guns for Haase;
– he had close links with numerous drug dealers and gangsters who were connected to Haase;
– the bosses of Bakerman’s £20-million drugs gang were connected to John Haase.
There is no suggestion that Michael Howard knew of or received any of the money. The money was taken to a London hotel from a flat in Liverpool owned by Haase. The drop was planned with military precision by a female associate of Haase’s known as The Supervisor. She was the woman No-Neck had helped after she’d OD’d on cocaine in front of her children. During the planning stages, she consulted with The Enforcer, who was eventually chosen as the lead bagman in the operation.
The Enforcer recalled how the cash was split into four loads of £250,000. He took one bag and three couriers took the rest. All four bagmen were to pay themselves £20,000 from the cash, leaving a total remainder of £920,000, which formed the alleged fourth bribe. Each courier was told to go to the Forte Crest Regent’s Park Hotel (now a Holiday Inn) at different times and take each bag to room 33.
THE ENFORCER: I was one of the couriers who took money to room 33 at the Regent’s Park Hotel. I was told by Haase to do it during a prison visit. Prior to this handover, I also helped The Supervisor get £180,000 from a safety-deposit box. That may have formed part of the payment, but I don’t know.
The instructions for the handover were given to me by a female associate of his called The Supervisor, because she was visiting him frequently, getting a lot of instructions from him on the gun-planting and the bribes and then putting them into action on the outside.
I picked up the money from The Supervisor in a black holdall with a lock on it and drove it to London. In the days before, both me and The Supervisor had discussed the best way to transport such a big amount of money to London. She wanted to do it all in one go, with just one person taking it all down. But I thought about it a lot. I was really methodical and I was looking at it from all angles. In the end, I told The Supervisor that it was better to do it in four loads of £250,000 than one. That reduced the risk of getting nicked or being followed. Both I and The Supervisor planned it so that each bagman wasn’t supposed to know who the others were. That’s so we couldn’t identify each other if it come ontop. But I had an idea who the others were. One of them was a long-time associate of Haase’s called John, who used to graft with him on the heroin. I later found out that this fella used to travel to France with Haase and Ben to pick up tackle from the Turks. He had known John since he was a kid and he was trusted. One of the others may have been a woman. It was agreed that each of the couriers should take out their fee from each parcel. I think it was £20,000 each. So in total, the net handover would have been £920,000.
I took mine in my car but it was up to each other person to make their own way how they wanted. I think one or two of the others went on the train. I drove it to Regent’s Park via Swiss Cottage. The hotel room opposite was being watched by Haase’s men and they were also outside the main entrance. There was a tray of leftover food outside the room. It had been arranged beforehand how the handover would work. Each one of the bagmen, including me, would go up to the room at separate times, open the door and go inside. There was no one in the room. Then the bag would be put inside and we would leave. Afterwards, I assumed the people who were picking up the money would come into the room and remove it. This system meant that there was never any contact between us and the other end of the operation, reducing the risk of compromising evidence. It had been arranged with the reception that no one who worked there could disturb the room for a few days, possibly even a week. They were just told that it didn’t need cleaning, no room service and that.
Just before each delivery, Haase’s men from the room opposite placed a used tray of food and drink outside room 133, like as though someone had room service and then left a tray outside for collection. But it wasn’t. This was so a keycard for room 133 could be left under a cup on the tray. I went up to the room and picked up the keycard from the tray. I went in, left the money and then left, watched from the room opposite by Haase’s men. After I left, I think that they took the tray away so that just before the next delivery or pick-up the keycard would be left under the tray again. This is so it wasn’t left hanging about in the corridor. I was told the people we would be paying the bribe to would come and collect it in the same fashion, when all drops had been done. So I think they took it all in one go.
I was told that Bakerman was the link. That he was the connection between Haase and Bennett and to whoever the money was going to.
Later, I found out that Haase and Bennett may have taped the handovers, possibly using covert recording in the room. But I was more sure that they had a person outside the hotel with a video camera, getting footage of people coming and going. For all I know, they may have had a video trained on the door of room 133. I was fucking furious that I had done this for them and they hadn’t told me about this recording stuff, which was compromising. A lot longer later I confronted them
about this. They said it was true and that they were only covering their arses in case the other side reneged on the deal. I demanded the tapes. They told me that they had only audio-recorded it. They gave me a bag of audiotapes and I just sat there pulling all the tape out of them and smashing them up.
The Fence, who had paid a separate bribe in London but who claimed to have a working knowledge of this handover, later confirmed that each bagman got £20,000 each. He also suggested that one of the couriers may have been a woman nicknamed The Horsebox, a close friend of Haase’s and The Supervisor’s. She later carried out a gangland shooting on the orders of Haase, firing at a nightclub doorman in a protection-racketeering dispute. Haase ditched her after she became addicted to drugs.
THE FENCE: The Enforcer later went mad over the fact that Haase had taped the handover. He was threatening all kinds, so we just gave him a bag of tapes to shut him up. I think they were the small ones, microcassettes, but I’m not 100 per cent. We said they were the originals and no other copies had been made. So The Enforcer was happy. He just sat there like a kid pulling them apart. Of course, it was a load of bollocks. The tapes we had given him were copies. In fact, I think some of them just had rubbish on them. We had kept copies. Later, Haase directed all the tapes to Ben. Ben kept a copy and copies were also sent up to someone in Scotland for safekeeping. I heard a rumour that a big drug dealer got caught and was on a big charge and he was threatening to make them public to embarrass the authorities. I don’t know whether that’s true – all I know is that the Jocks have got a copy. Haase and Ben were very close to them.
But the alleged corruption didn’t stop there. Haase claims that he paid a fifth bribe of £400,000 to Simon Bakerman, which he assumed was being passed on to Michael Howard. But even Haase was sceptical about this alleged payment. He says he took the Howard–Bakerman link with ‘a pinch of salt’. That could mean one of several things: that Haase did not quite believe that Howard was involved; that Haase did not believe that Bakerman would take the money to Howard or had the influence to approach him; or that Haase saw the whole thing as a pie-in-the-sky long shot with little chance of success. However, Haase claims that he decided it was worth a punt anyway on the basis that anything that increased the chances of getting freedom was worth a shot. Again, he claims to have delegated the details to Chris No-Neck and thought no more about it. Haase claims that Bakerman was paid with two kilos of heroin worth about £40,000 for agreeing to accept the money and help influence Michael Howard.
JOHN HAASE: We were having meetings with Tony Nelson, Bennett and our counsel. Mine was Henriques. I don’t know who Bennett’s was. We were talking about the letter to the judge which would be recommendations for all the information I had given. It would go from the judge to the Home Office, then to the home secretary, who was Michael Howard at the time, who would ultimately sign it.
Paul Bennett said he knew someone who was related to the home secretary. I took it with a pinch of salt. That person was Simon Bakerman. Bennett had drug dealings with Simon Bakerman before. Bennett came back [to me a few days later, after making more enquiries about Bakerman] and said he reckoned he had relations who knew Michael Howard [reckoned he knew people who were related to Michael Howard]. This [organising the Bakerman link] went on for a couple of months. There were a couple of brothers, one Mr A and one Mr I [the initials of their Christian names], who were very good friends of Bakerman. They deal with him. Drugs. Mr I had always done it. [These brothers were from] Park Road, Liverpool [where Bakerman hung out]. Everyone knows everyone.
I got in touch with them through someone else. I can’t name that person. They came back and said Bakerman was kosher. The next thing is Paul Bennett said I reckon we’ve got a deal on and it was x amount of money. When I asked him how much, he said £400k. At the time, it didn’t faze me because, as I said before, our bank account was £1 million to play with and we still had a lot left even after buying the guns.
Chris No-Neck was to handle all this business. As far as I know, in December 1995, Chris No-Neck delivered a holdall to [Haase’s home address]. A lady [The Supervisor] there collected the holdall. That same day, the holdall was picked up by Mr A. Inside the holdall was £400k cash and a money-counting machine. I phoned [home] and was told the business had been done. My understanding from Bakerman was that the £400k was to pay off Michael Howard when my judge’s letter reached him. [This is only Haase’s assumption based on Bakerman’s assurance and there is no evidence to suggest that Michael Howard was involved in any wrongdoing or knew of any wrongdoing or that the claim is true.] As far as I know, Mr A told me he delivered this [the £400,000] to Simon Bakerman, to be delivered to Michael Howard [again this is only Haase’s claim], to pay him off so that when the judge delivered the recommendation to Michael Howard, he signed the Royal Prerogative [Haase’s claim]. Bakerman’s reward was a couple of kilos of brown for doing the [alleged] deal with Howard on behalf of me and Bennett. Chris No-Neck had loads of brown – he was like a quartermaster.
No-Neck allegedly dropped the money around at The Supervisor’s house at 5 p.m. Two hours later, by 7 p.m., the bag of money had been picked up by Mr A. It was then driven to a location one hour outside Liverpool and allegedly handed over to Bakerman. The Supervisor independently confirmed this version of events and her role in the alleged money transfer in a meeting attended by herself, author Graham Johnson, Peter Kilfoyle MP and one of Haase’s main lieutenants.
PART THREE
SCANDAL, CONSEQUENCES AND CONSPIRACY THEORIES
20
RELEASE AND CONSPIRACY THEORIES
In the early summer of 1996, Michael Howard granted John Haase and Paul Bennett a Royal Pardon each. On 3 July 1996, after all the paperwork had been processed, they were released from prison.
All of their hard work had paid off beautifully. They found themselves back on the street in less than six months after the bribes had allegedly been handed over. Officially, their sentences had been reduced by the Home Office from the original eighteen years to five years. With the standard one-third off for parole, that meant they only had to serve about three years of the five. Since their sentencing on 22 August of the previous year, they had officially served ten and a half months of their new five-year tariff. But taking into account the two years and one month they had spent on remand between their arrests in July ’93 and sentencing in August ’95, they had spent a total three years in jail – qualifying for immediate freedom.
The walk out was a low-key affair. Haase left Franklyn prison and jumped on a train home. Bennett was met by solicitor Tony Nelson and Customs Officer Paul Cook, signifying that he had now become the favourite, the more coveted Customs contact. This was a slight to Haase’s status, and he would have been furious if he’d found out.
As soon as Haase got back, No-Neck gave him the cash that was left from the war chest – between £150,000 and £250,000. Bennett got the same amount. Shortly afterwards, Bennett flew with his girlfriend and children to Mexico to lay low.
JOHN HAASE: In December 1995, I’m in Long Lartin prison. At the end of December, I’m in Hull prison. Then, in January, I’m in Franklyn prison. From December, when I phoned my wife, I don’t know anything because I’m in the block [secure wing]. 3 July appears; a lot of screws appear and tell me I’m going. I asked where. They said, ‘We can’t tell you.’ I arrive in a police station in Durham. A couple of people came in to talk to me; I can’t remember who they were. One plain-clothes policeman took me to the railway station and I was given my fare home and ended up on Lime Street station in Liverpool.
Haase had got his result. He assumed that all of the bribes he had allegedly paid had got to the right people, that they had pulled whatever strings had needed to be pulled, and that the combined effect was the desired result. But what really happened to the alleged payments, assuming they were made in the first place and were not just a figment of Haase’s devious and twisted imagination in an unfathomable bid to confuse, to disguise a dark secre
t? There are several theories:
1) Michael Howard got the money.
There is no suggestion or evidence that the home secretary was guilty of any wrongdoing or corruption. At the worst, he is guilty of nothing more than, like many involved, not seeing through the scam which released two of the most dangerous criminals in the UK back onto the streets.
2) Bakerman took the money and gave it to some other influential figure(s).
Plausible, but who are they? Within days of Haase’s release, the Sunday Mirror revealed that Bakerman and Haase had twice been in telephone contact with each other.
3) Bakerman took the money from Haase, falsely promising him that he would hand it over to his second-cousin Howard. This theory would mean he had talked up his relationship with Howard in order to sting Haase into thinking that he could help him. The convicted fraudster, who was schooled in the dark arts of the drug dealers – the double-cross, the self-serving streetwise scam – then pocketed the money, later telling Haase it had gone to Howard.
For a cash-desperate, drug-addicted con-artist like Bakerman, such a high-risk double sting would be second nature, no different from his hare-brained fake kidnapping. Haase would never question the deal because he would be getting the result he wanted. If he didn’t get out of prison, there was little he could do about it anyway. Who was he going to tell? If push came to shove, Bakerman could give him the money back or make up an excuse that it hadn’t worked for some reason. After all, Haase had known from the beginning that there was a risk of failure.
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