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Jailed, the couple 'told to lie by Mr Loophole's company'

by LIZ HULL - More by this author »

A millionaire couple have been jailed after they lied to help their son avoid a speeding conviction - on the advice of a firm of lawyers headed by the solicitor 'Mr Loophole'.

Janet Lefton, 49, and her husband, Harold, 51, contacted the firm after their son Jeremy was twice caught speeding.

The business is headed by Nick Freeman, who has represented a string of celebrities controversially cleared of motoring offences.

They claim the solicitors told them to deny having received the notices of intended prosecution, which arrived through the post at their mansion on Belle Isle, an island in the middle of Windermere, Cumbria.

Mrs Lefton, last year named Britain's 31st richest woman with a fortune of £170million, even stood up and lied on behalf of her son in court.

Jeremy, 21, was eventually acquitted after magistrates accepted Mrs Lefton's claims. But the lie was exposed when police discovered that the notices of intended prosecution had arrived - and all three Leftons were arrested.

Last month Mrs Lefton and her son both admitted perjury at a hearing at Cardiff Crown Court and both parents also pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice. All three were jailed for three months.

Mr Freeman, whose firm has represented Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, former England football captain David Beckham, snooker star Ronnie O'Sullivan and golfer Colin Montgomerie, is on police bail after being arrested on conspiracy to pervert the course of justice in November last year.

It is unclear whether his arrest is linked to the Lefton case. The Leftons' convictions came to light yesterday when their lawyers went to the Court of Appeal in London to try to have their jail terms cut.

Three judges ruled that the sentences were 'manifestly excessive' and agreed to cut them to 21 days for Jeremy and six weeks each for his parents.

The hearing was told that university student Jeremy, who lives in Manchester, was twice caught speeding on camera in Wales in May 2005.

Notices of intended prosecution were sent to his home in Windermere and were opened by Mrs Lefton, who contacted Freeman and Co for advice.

Mrs Lefton, a former lawyer and the daughter of the founder of Swinton Insurance, claimed she was told by the solicitors to do nothing but, if further notice was received, to write to say she had not received the original notices.

Lord Justice Gage, sitting with Mr Justice Burton and Judge Stephen Stewart, QC, said a letter was indeed sent to the police by the couple.

"It misrepresented the position by saying the originals had not been received. It falsely suggested (Jeremy) had no recollection of who was driving and falsely implied that others could have driven."

Jeremy was convicted in his absence by magistrates, but they agreed to review the case. Last year, Jeremy and his mother attended court for another hearing. Mrs Lefton was unexpectedly asked by Jeremy's solicitor to confirm that they had never received the documents. She duly did, effectively committing perjury.

The scam unravelled after the family applied for defence costs and police examined the issue further.

Lord Justice Gage agreed to cut their jail terms after accepting that the couple had acted on advice of the solicitors.

"By their actions, all three have lost their good character and severely damaged their reputation," said the judge. "They are genuinely remorseful for what they have done."

A man who answered the door to the Lefton's second home, in Mayfair last night refused to comment. No-one was available for comment from Freeman and Co.

***

I've emboldened some curious statements...

I'm not entirely sure what to make of this...

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

People who lie end up causing maginstrates to distrust people with a genuinie case. Further more it is taking the p*ss to reclaim defence costs after being so dishonest. While they don't deserve jail sentences I hope they severly lose out financially and that the solicitors lose their jobs.

I have met Mr Lefton - and he is a likable man - not a criminal type at all!
I suppose he decided his son did not deserve all those points.

Northwest Evening Mail report:

I shall contact him ASAP and draw his attention to these pages.

This case is at last beginning to make some sense!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Be sure to assure him that if Safe Speed had proper funding we could bring the whole filthy mess down in months. I am absolutely certain of it now.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

It's a shame he decided to use his money to pay for his son to get out of trouble through dishonest means rather than support a legal and honest campaign such as Safe Speed

It is a shame - and it's the sort of lie which safety camera partnerships subscribe to all the time, and collect large sums of money for, so they were in good company.
At 18 years old with two sets of points the son stood to lose his licence.
Our local partnership place two cameras side by side in order to try and prosecute the same offence twice on a regular basis.
If you were caught in such a trap, would YOU consider lying?

In this instance, the appeal judges have accepted that their solicitor told them to lie, AND said the sentences were unduly severe, and reduced them - a curious state of affairs!
It is an addmission that the first judge got it wrong - and when they used their money and appealed, justice was served

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

The family are idiots given they could have afforded for the son to take taxis (or have a permanent driver) until his ban was over.

IMO, the police "examined the issue further" as it was a case related to Mr Freeman and they were trying to catch him out. How they proved that the NIPs were delivered is interesting - how would they do this? Interview the postman who rowed out across the lake?

We are now brought to the situation where the perceived injustice of being banned for what are trivial technical offences is now causing very "upright" citizens to try to circumvent the law. Is this what we reaaly want?

Sentencing them to jail is ridiculous. They are no danger to the public. If the judiciary think that this perjury (meriting jail) was bringing the law into disrepute then they should look at the disconnection between the public and the police caused by the whole speed camera mess.

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

This from earlier in the month may have some bearing...

large link

New bail date for 'Mr Loophole'

Apr 12 2007

CELEBRITY lawyer Nick Freeman, who was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to pervert the course of justice, had his bail date extended again today.

Mr Freeman was arrested in Manchester last October as part of an investigation carried out by Gwent Police in Wales.

He had been due to answer bail today, but a Gwent Police spokeswoman said the date has now been deferred to May 8.

It is the second time Mr Freeman, known as “Mr Loophole” for his ability to help motorists escape convictions, has had his bail date deferred. He had originally been due to answer bail last month.

Mr Freeman, from Mere, Cheshire, has represented celebrities including Sir Alex Ferguson, model Caprice and former England captain David Beckham with his Manchester-based firm, Freeman & Co Solicitors.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

As an aside, the Round House on Belle Isle has a history of "rebellious" owners!

It was once owned by immediate relatives of Fletcher Christian (of Mutiny on the Bounty fame ). As Ernest will no doubt confirm, local legend has it that he escaped from the South Pacific and ended up living out his days on Belle Isle

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That's how Nazi Germany started. They'll be burning books next. (Brian Noble, Wigan coach - updated 20/4/06!!).

That doesn't answer the question.

The conundrum remains that IF the Leftons were advised to lie about the delivery of the original NIP, then how did this come to light? Leaving aside any question of morality, the fact remains that this strategy would have been pretty much bulletproof, viz: multi-millionaire upstanding member of community declares document not received, meanwhile the scamera partnership has no way of proving otherwise due to their insistence on not using recorded delivery in order to maximise their profits; thus case dismissed.

Indeed, from the report it appears that this is exactly what happened in this case, so why were they subsequently jailed? The article gives no hint as to how the truth was revealed.

The only plausible theory I can come up with is that in routinely claiming the defence costs Mr Freeman billed for advice given to the Leftons on a date that preceded their claimed first knowledge of the offence; and an eagle-eyed taxation officer spotted this and kicked off the investigation.

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CSCP Latin for beginners...
Ticketo ergo sum : I scam therefore I am!

Where did the second quote come from (not malcolmw's)?
I'm puzzled by the use of seeked legal advice, rather than sought legal advice ~ and as JT points out, how did it come to light?

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Cromwell's roundheads were said to have fired on royalists on the Island!
http://www.know-britain.com/cities_towns/lake_district_history.html


Imagine - first you have difficulty getting carpets fitted in your house, then your son gets to lose his licence because of a camera whose operators get to lie and misrepresent all the time!

Those alcoves either side of the entrance would take two of those speed cam statues, even if scaled to full size!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

how do they manage this, i always thought that if there were two camera's close to one another only one would be loaded at any given time



i would imagine that GMP and Gwent would have checked everything, every T is crossed every I is dotted before arresting Freeman

Why bother - have you ever seen servants move that fast

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

Simple. A fixed camera is in place at Ings central to the site, and a mobile van sits at either end in the old mobile parking spot.
One of our number was caught last year as he accelerated up to the exit of the site! Just the one as I understand it - he must have slowed for the fixed!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

right i understand it, people slow for fixed camera then accelerate away. So they stick a van to catch them, no doubt they provide evidence that the driver had slowed for the fixed camera, hence they know what limit they are in

I was given a lift by my brother when we encountered one of these ba$£ard setups. You see, we have just joined the M275 northbound where the limit was recently dropped from 70 to 50 (this section was AFTER the flyover so no need for it). He was building up speed when I spotted the van so I shouted at him to slow up (by which I mean panic brake), he only had his license for a year and was already on 3 points. That was a close shave!

£u**er$

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Views expressed are personal opinions and are not necessarily shared by the Safe Speed campaign

It is very curious how it came to light.

Even if correspondance came to light that showed that they had been in contact with NF prior to recieving the final reminder then that is not proof that the original was recieved....unless when faced with this one of them 'cracked'.....either that or a little post victory show boating was going on.

I suppose it depends what the solicitor's 'advice' was. It could be that a comment was made along the lines of 'sometimes the original is not recieved in time, when that happens the case cannot proceed' and that was taken to be legal advice.

No doubt we'll find out in the fullness of time.

Ernest wrote "Simple. A fixed camera is in place at Ings central to the site, and a mobile van sits at either end in the old mobile parking spot."

Wonder how often this will happen nationwide shortly - must say that at one site locally the old mobile site is still there( under a willow treejust /almost past the Gatso markings ) - or will they now "enforce "the opposite direction -

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on