Defendant ‘used family to hand out £20 notes in jury bribery bid’

Patrick Cleere, 66, allegedly hatched the plan to nobble the jury at Blackfriars crown court last July
Victoria Jones/PA
Tony Palmer13 November 2019
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

A crown court defendant recruited friends and family to hand out £20 notes to jurors in an attempt to derail his trial, a court heard.

Patrick Cleere, 66, allegedly hatched the plan to nobble the jury at Blackfriars crown court last July with the help of wife Rita, 66, niece Natalie, 45, and friends Rajiv Netto, 51, and Hajnalka Romvari, 37.

They are all accused of handing out £20 notes to people entering the court building, as well as distributing wooden business cards — later recovered from the jury room — for Cleere’s company Candleverse.

Harrow crown court heard Cleere’s criminal trial, which involved Candleverse, was halted as a result of the incident.

Prosecutor Robin Sellers said Cleere had insisted he was “not ready” for his trial and made repeated attempts to have it adjourned.

Mr Sellers added: “On the day of the trial Patrick and these defendants arrived together, some carrying clipboards and all wearing lanyards around their necks showing his business card.

“They approached individuals making their way in, explaining they were representing Candleverse Ltd and enticing people to look at the company website.

"Instead of discount vouchers they handed out £20 notes and the wooden Candleverse business cards.

"Most importantly and uppermost in Patrick Cleere’s mind was that these people were potentially to be selected to serve on the jury for his trial.”

Police seized £920 which had been distributed to people at the court, with £855 seized from Rita Cleere and £440 from Netto.

Patrick Cleere and his wife, from Ealing, Natalie Cleere, of Clacton, Netto, from Somerset, and Romvari, a Hungarian national, all deny trying to pervert justice.

The trial continues.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in