A police informant who helped two ‘corrupt police

A police informant who helped two ‘corrupt police officers’ to infiltrate international crime gangs was today (TUES) locked up for 42 months at the Old Bailey for a pnds stlg 400,000 mobile phone rip-off.

Geoffrey Brennan, 47, was used by his detective handlers in a covert operation aimed at investigating drug trafficking, arms dealing and money laundering.

Brennan said the cops from the since disbanded Southeast Regional Crime Squad tasked him to investigate a notorious ‘enforcer’ with connections to a Venezuelan drug cartel.

He said they wanted him to tip them off about
Ted Williams, who he decribed as an ‘awesome’ member of the underworld.

During his involvement in ‘Operation Nightshade’ Brennan also travelled to America where he met a ‘big old Texan’ who propositioned him about selling arms and money laundering.

Brennan insisted that Det Con Michael Charman and Det Insp John Redgrave, asked him to help uncover the international crime syndicate.

But while acting as an informant in 1993 Brennan was introduced to Los Angeles based businessman Sam Wang through his ‘dubious’ American contacts.

After a series of meetings he stole more than pnds stlg 400,000 from Mr Wang after promising him a batch of Motorola mobile phones.

It emerged during the trial that he may have given up to pnds stlg 50,000 of the loot to Charman and Redgrave.

The two officers have been suspended for more than four years now.

Andrew Trollope, QC, said there was evidence both Charman and Redgrave were ‘complicit’ in the mobile phone crime.

Mr Trollope said Brennan undoubtedly passed on genuine information about Williams, a ‘large-scale drug trafficker.

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The QC said Brennan also provided vital information about a plot to sell arms from an American gang to protestant paramilitaries based in Northern Ireland.

‘There is absolutely no question that a major arms dealing conspiracy was afoot in 1993 and 1994.

‘It was Brennan who gave police the information about that part of the operation as well as an operation involving drugs in Venezuala and Portugal.

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Brennan, a former court bailiff, carried out the sting from his showroom in Welling, Kent after offering Hong Kong born Mr Wang a lucrative deal on Motorola phones.

He used the cash to buy a luxury home in Kent for pnds stlg 175,000 in cash while his victim never got his goods.

Prosecutor Richard Latham, QC, had branded Det Con Charman and Det Insp Redgrave ‘corrupt police officers.

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But Brennan said: ‘I was being directed to stop arms being put on the streets of this country and Northern Ireland.

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But Brennan had to go into hiding after documents revealing his activities as an informant were leaked to Williams, the court heard.

Williams, an alleged cocaine importer with connections to the infamous Brinks Mat robbery gang, had a reputation as an ‘awesome’ underworld enforcer.

Brennan and his family were put under armed guard and relocated with new identities while CIB2, the police anti-corruption squad, investigated claims of dishonesty levelled at Charman and Redgrave.

The jury heard that fraud squad detectives investigating the mobile phone theft took three years to find Brennan after he was placed in the secretive witness protection program.

But during the trial Brennan identified the powerfully-built Williams listening to the proceedings from the public gallery.

Giving evidence he said he was encouraged by Redgrave and Sharman to open up dealings with a series of colourful American characters, including Bill Pagett, a ‘big old Texan’ who wore a shoulder holster.

Brennan said one of Pagett’s group told him: ‘We can supply anything up to a battleship.

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But the prosecution maintained that the grandiose claims about Operation Nightshade were a smokescreen to cover his own criminal schemes.

Brennan was today convicted of a charge of theft dating between September 8 and October 6 1993.

He denied the charge.

Just days after the cash poured into his account Brennan walked into a solicitor’s office with a cash-stuffed suitcase to buy the house in Falkham Avenue, New Barn, Kent.

And at the same time he abandoned his business premises in Parkview Road, Welling.

Brennan claimed the cash purchase was merely the profits from his thriving mobile phone business.

But the court heard how the fraudster targeted Sam Wang and his brother Tom, who owned a variety of import-export companies in Los Angeles.

Through business associates at another American company, Delta Acceptives, the Wangs were offered the chance to buy thousands of Motorola 8800X phones, through Brennan.

But the Wangs did not realise Brennan was not authorised to deal in the phones, and that the transaction could not have been completed.

There was a worldwide shortage of that Motorola model and the Wangs were eager to do business with Brennan because the phone was hugely popular with the oriental community in Los Angeles.

Sam Wang flew to the UK in August 1993 to meet up with some associates from Delta Acceptive who arranged a meeting with Brennan.

He also showed Mr Wang false documentation which showed he was a Motorola dealer.

Mr Wang was promised 1000 phones and was invited to Brennan’s shop which was covered in Motorola placards and banners.

He sent just over pnds stlg 402,000 to Brennan’s account by electronic transfer on September 17 1993.

But when Mr Wang asked to see the phones Brennan told him they were being held in a bonded warehouse.

He was also told they could not be airfreighted until Motorola were given their money.

And Brennan explained away the delays by telling the victim the Inland Revenue was looking into his affairs so he could not risk paying the phone company.

After Brennan was convicted of theft today Mr Trollope said: ‘Whatever he is guilty of he was giving genuine information to police about matters of very great importance to society.

‘If the jury found he was guilty of an opportunistic crime committed while an informant we submit that he did so under the noses of those officers, and if they permitted it of Brennan they bear a very large responsibility indeed.

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Passing sentence Judge Brian Barker, QC, told Brennan: ‘It has been an extraordinary case with an unusual background and you have clearly lived your life at risk.

‘You have been convicted on the clearest evidence of an audacious and opportunistic theft.

‘You used your connections with men of dubious background and honesty in Houston in order to take advantage of the Wangs.

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The judge sentenced Brennan to 42 months jail after taking into account that he has a desperately ill wife and the fact that the case dates back to 1983.

The father-of-one was born and brought up in Bermondsey, southeast London.

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