Drug dealer, 47, paid addict £100 to lie to jury that she was someone else in failed bid to escape justice
A judge said the behaviour was “a strike at the very heart of the criminal justice system”
A drug dealer who paid an addict £100 to lie to a jury in a failed attempt to get away with peddling crack cocaine and heroin has been jailed.
Charity worker and father of three Lueque Charles-Gumbs got Emma Green to give evidence under a false name when he faced trial for dealing in Telford.
However, their plan fell apart when a police officer realised Green was not who she said she was, and was in fact wanted by police in Birmingham.
The trial collapsed and the jury was discharged, with Charles-Gumbs subsequently found guilty after a retrial at Shrewsbury Crown Court last month of perverting the course of justice, possession with intent to supply heroin and crack cocaine, and possession of cannabis.
Charles-Gumbs, aged 47, attended the sentence hearing on Friday (July 3) at Shrewsbury Crown Court, sitting at Telford Justice Centre, via video link from prison. Green did not turn up to court and a warrant was issued for her arrest.
The court was told that Charles-Gumbs was stopped by police outside the gym he attended - the Nuffield Health gym at Telford Forge Shopping Park - in July 2021.
Officers searched his Nike holdall and his mother’s Mercedes which he drove there. They found “a significant quantity” of heroin and crack cocaine, as well as a Nokia “burner” phone and a smartphone.
The Nokia contained messages indicative of drug dealing.
Charles-Gumbs denied dealing and his case went to trial, where his mother gave evidence as well as Green, who lied on oath that her name was Louisa.
A woman’s ID with the name Louisa was found in the car when Charles-Gumbs was arrested outside the gym.
Green, 48, told the jury that the bag seized from the car and its contents belonged to her former partner ‘John’.
It was only after she gave evidence that an officer worked out who she really was.
The jury was discharged and Charles-Gumbs was arrested and interviewed about perverting the course of justice.
He told police that he knew Green as Louisa, and that he didn’t know she had given a false name.
Green was arrested and initially gave a “no comment” interview to police, before admitting what she had done.
‘He was having me over’
She told officers she did not know who Louisa or John were, and that Charles-Gumbs had paid her £100 inside the court building to lie for him.
Footage showed Green’s partner counting money outside court.
Green also said that Charles-Gumbs had promised her thousands more after the trial.
“At that point she said she believed he was ‘having me over’,” said Alura Bather, prosecuting.
Charles-Gumbs, of Wheelers Lane, Kings Heath, Birmingham, has 22 previous convictions for 44 offences, most of them for motoring crimes.
Green, of Woodville Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham, previously pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice.
She has 58 previous convictions for 135 offences, mostly for theft.
Lee Masters, for Charles-Gumbs, said: “What is unfortunate for him is that if he had pleaded guilty to the drugs offences, he would have got a shorter sentence, possibly even a suspended sentence.”
He said Charles-Gumbs has recently been working for Act On Energy, a charity which helps vulnerable people with their energy bills.
‘A strike at the very heart of the criminal justice system’
Judge Trevor Meegan described the behaviour of Charles-Gumbs and Green as “a grave attack on the administration of justice”, and that it was a “strike at the very heart of the criminal justice system”.
He told Charles-Gumbs: “You procured Emma Green, a drug-dependent woman, to act on your own interests. She swore on oath. She adopted a false identity.
“The deception was sufficiently serious that the jury had to be discharged and the trial had to be abandoned.”
The judge jailed Charles-Gumbs for seven years. It is expected he will serve 40 per cent of that behind bars before being released on licence.
Judge Meegan also ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the drugs, paraphernalia and phones that were seized.
Earlier in the hearing, Sami Jan, representing Green, asked for the judge to adjourn the sentence. He said that Green had not learned the date of the sentencing until late and that she couldn’t afford to get to court because she is on Universal Credit.
Judge Meegan denied the request and issued a bench warrant for her arrest, pointing to Green’s lengthy previous convictions dating back to 1999, which include several incidents of failing to surrender.
“Universal Credit is a generous benefit,” the judge said. “She could have got a £10 train ticket to get to Telford from Birmingham.”
The judge addressed police officers in court, saying: “I will sentence Emma Green when she is arrested by police,” urging them to execute the warrant “sooner rather than later”.