4) Bakerman and Hyman Roth pocketed the money together. It is known that Bakerman had run up gambling debts of £500,000, which Hyman Roth had helped him to pay off. Pocketing Haase’s money may have been a good way of recovering the lost money.
5) Chris No-Neck, bitter that he had not been paid by Haase for organising the gun plants, pocketed the money.
6) Bagmen Mr A and Mr I pocketed the money, threatening Bakerman to go along with the plan and sweetening him with a little dropsy.
7) The insider got part of the money and helped Haase get out of prison. This assumes that bribes were actually paid and were not just figments of Haase’s imagination, and that he had not made up the story for his own ends.
8) Haase orchestrated the whole bribe plan as an insurance policy if his bid for freedom backfired and he was kept in jail.
This theory – supported by Bakerman himself – states that Haase was worried in case the gun-planting came to light, or, for some other reason, the home secretary refused to follow Customs’ advice and let him out, or, if he was let out, that his Royal Pardon would be revoked in the future. To counter this, vengeful Haase prepared to sling mud at the home secretary by saying that he bribed him through his bent second-cousin. He got his heavies to force Bakerman to go along with a bogus plan to bribe the home secretary using intimidation and blackmail.
9) Some of the payments were decoys. Only one was a proper bribe and the rest were to spread confusion – a common tactic amongst drug dealers.
10) Haase feared that he would be exposed as a real informant. He made up the bribe story to cover his early release. He would be able to say to the underworld that he had bribed the home secretary.
11) Haase made the story up so that he wouldn’t have to repay the Turks their £1 million.
12) The secret payments were for completely different reasons than for a bribe. For instance, Haase had to pay £840,000 in drug-related asset recovery. But would such an official payment be made so shadily? Yes, it might, if Haase’s men organising the drop on the outside – who were active drug dealers at the time – wanted to protect their identities and their close links with drug money. They may have feared a sting by Customs during such a payment. But couldn’t Haase have simply made the payment through his solicitor?
All of the criminals who were allegedly involved have different stories. As for Haase, he is adamant that his man on the inside took the money because, at the end of the day, the proof is in the pudding. He got out of prison. The insider delivered on the promise.
JOHN HAASE: Fucking right. He had to or he’d have been in trouble. He would have got bumped.
But what makes him so sure that the others played by the rules? Why is he so cocksure that No-Neck, the two bagmen or Bakerman didn’t sting him for four hundred grand?
JOHN HAASE: They wouldn’t have done that. One thing, too loyal. That goes for No-Neck. Another thing, scared. If it [stealing the bribe money] didn’t work, they’d have been too scared. Twenty, thirty grand to get them shot. Mr A took it, Bakerman . . . I haven’t a clue [about the logistics of it].
But wouldn’t Haase know the details? For instance, whether Mr A and Bakerman ever met the intended target of the bribe to give him or her the money?
JOHN HAASE: All I know is that I’m in prison at the end of December. Then, in July, I was taken by a policeman to the railway, given me fare home and I ended up in Lime Street station. A couple of days later, met him, Simon Bakerman, at the Royal Oak, Park Road, Liverpool. It was a couple of days later, with Bennett, after we were released. Mr A and Mr I were there, in the Royal Oak pub on Park Road. Had a little discussion: ‘Thank you for that favour,’ and all that. Bennett had a chat with him [Bakerman] and then we got off. Just a few seconds.
I didn’t really like the guy [Bakerman]. Bennett’s talking to Simon; I’m talking to Mr A and Mr I – they were my friends. They were making a fuss of him [Bakerman], saying thanks for that, any favours, just let me know.
But didn’t Haase ask Bakerman the details? Did Bakerman tell Haase exactly what he’d done? ‘Not in so many words,’ says Haase. But what actual proof does he have that the money went from Mr A to Bakerman to the recipient?
JOHN HAASE: Bakerman’s word. That’s it. Mr A wasn’t there. I’ve got no one else’s word but Bakerman’s. Bakerman. Well, he doesn’t look like he’s been riding round in a brand new car, that he’s spent four hundred grand, anyway.
For Haase, the bottom line is that he got a Royal Prerogative, a very rare occurrence, used only once by David Blunkett while he was in power.
JOHN HAASE: That’s what I’m saying. I can’t say he [Bakerman] gave him [Michael Howard] it. It’s down to Bakerman. I was talking to Mr A the other week. Mr A now lives out the way with kids. He doesn’t want all this brought up again. He said, ‘Yeah,’ [to talking about it] then he thought, ‘Phwooorrr!’ [No way.] I can’t blame him in a sense there. He’s living a good life.
Haase said that he paid Bakerman two kilos of heroin and not just £200, as claimed by some of Bakerman’s underworld pals.
JOHN HAASE: Money? Bakerman got nothing at all. Bollocks, two hundred quid! A couple of ki of brown. Deffo. Two hundred quid. That’s a load of shit. For doing what he done. For getting in touch with [the man who allegedly took the money]. For doing the deal with him on behalf of me and Bennett. No-Neck gave him the brown. No-Neck. He had loads of brown. With No-Neck it was whatever you want.
But No-Neck denies all involvement.
CHRIS NO-NECK: How could I have orchestrated the Bakerman bung? I’m not going to get myself into shit over them. I owed them nothing. Haase has made all this up to stop himself being labelled a grass. Do you think John Haase would compromise himself with a fucking smack-head [Bakerman]?
Simon Bakerman denies that he received the money from Haase. But he does admit to ‘knowing’ Paul Bennett and bagmen Mr A and Mr I. He initially denied being in the UK in the winter of ’95–’96, when Haase says Bakerman did the business. But checks on his passport state that he returned from Israel on 14 May 1995, putting him in the ballpark. He then claimed that he was having a nervous breakdown and was in hospital in London. However, his confusion over dates is probably down to his drug-addled brain.
Bakerman claims that the bribe scheme was a plan by Haase to put pressure on him, his family and Michael Howard to ensure his freedom at the time and in the future. He says that his life was used as an insurance policy in a plot to blackmail Michael Howard and that Haase’s gunmen have threatened to kill him six times to force him to say that he bribed Michael Howard. He says the pressures have extracted a horrific toll, driving him to a £1,500-a-week cocaine habit and several attempted suicides to escape the underworld and the nightmarish JFK-style conspiracy. Following some of the threats, Bakerman armed himself with a gun for self-protection – but shot himself by accident.
Bakerman thinks he was recruited by Haase in case the gun-planting scam backfired and the Royal Pardons were revoked at the last minute. Haase allegedly told Bakerman that, if Howard saw through the scam, he had to say that he’d bribed his famous cousin in order to get him to back off.
SIMON BAKERMAN: Towards the end of the year [1995 or 1996 – he cannot remember], I was told I was part of a conspiracy and I had to play along with it. I couldn’t handle it so I tried to kill myself. I was found in the car half-dead, with a hosepipe from the exhaust. I spent the next few months in the hospital. At the time, Michael Howard was home secretary.
Then I started receiving visits from underworld figures. I was the most important pawn in the game, because I was the link between Michael Howard and John Haase, the one who allegedly paid the money from John Haase to Michael Howard to free Haase. That was invented but I was told to play along with it. And if I don’t play along with it, my life is over.
He wants his freedom. But if I was to stand and deny it, it could jeopardise his freedom. But if I am dead, it’s just one word against another.
I haven’t even see
n or spoken to Haase in my life. I’ve seen Paul Bennett. I haven’t spoken to him. He used to frequent the same places.
I can’t live like this any more. I can’t live looking over my shoulder. I can’t sleep at night. I’ve had a nervous breakdown. I’ve been in the hospital over this. It’s ruining my life. I can’t go to work. I’m telling you, I was living abroad in the whole of 1995. I came back for the FA Cup final. I went back to Liverpool towards the end of the year. I was told I was part of a conspiracy and I had to play along with it and couldn’t handle it so I tried to kill myself. Spent the next few months in the hospital. Right through to 1996. So there’s no way they could have met me or seen me. And that proves I was not part of the conspiracy.
I was once offered a gold Rolex watch – I presume on behalf of John Haase – to make a statement saying I had played a role in the conspiracy. The gold Rolex was there in the box with the offer of money. By this time, I was feeling under threat. I went into hiding. I was even questioned about it inside prison and approached by some heavies saying they had records of me being the key player – that I was a key player and the deal had been done in Southport.
I got paid off to pay Michael Howard the money. I’ve heard figures from £400,000 to £100,000 to £50,000 – to even a million pound. If I don’t play along in the conspiracy, I am looking at a bullet in my head. Can’t sleep at night. So many sleeping tablets, so many antidepressants. I’m finished. Emotionally drained. You can’t get a proper job because you can’t concentrate.
Nothing to do with Bennett, I think.
Their aim is that if I’m ever questioned, if I say, ‘Yeah, I did get a payment,’ it will help his case. I can’t say that. I can’t lie. I met Mr I once, years ago. I’ve never spoken to Michael Howard about it. It was not a major concern to him, obviously. I was advised by my family not to. Just to leave things and let it die. I was advised by solicitors to leave it, let it die. You are dealing with the underworld. And I’ve tried to leave it but it wouldn’t die. The longer it has gone on, the more pressure I am under.
I could walk out today and I could be dead tomorrow. I’m going to be in a coffin. It was down to the judge at the end of the day. Howard just signs the paper. It was a con that came off. Everyone knows that. They pulled the wool over Howard’s eyes. It’s a great PR stunt to give up arms, isn’t it? It’s not his job to investigate all these things.
All I said is I didn’t know them [Haase and Bennett], but I knew some of their associates. The thing is, the game’s so deep, the conspiracy is so big. If I go the wrong way, or something leaks out, I’ve been told my card’s marked, there’s a bullet in my head.
I’m going abroad, out the way. I am going to live another life. I’m starting a new life. I’ve had half a dozen visits. But the faces I’ve seen have been turning up in places I’ve been. Maybe that is just to say, ‘We are watching you.’
A few months ago, I went high up in the police to make enquiries. And I’ve even broke down in tears, saying why am I a pawn? Why am I part of the game? But I’m in it and I can’t get out of it. I know a lot of underworld figures from different areas.
You’ve got to admire them for getting out in the first place. It’s been a great link in a great plot. And full marks, because it has been a great plot. But at the end of the day, why should I and my family have to suffer? Why should I have to live in fear over something I have nothing to do with? To pay someone to kill me is buttons compared to the price of the freedom he earns. If I’m dead, it’s his word against Michael Howard’s word. If I deny it, I’d be dead within two days of saying that. But I daren’t go to the police for help.
Let’s face it, half of the police are corrupt. I’ve seen it with my own eyes, police getting paid. So who do you turn to? If I pick up a gun, I can’t fight 50 people because I’ll go to prison. I’m in a corner where I can’t get out. If I take my own life, it’s showing guilt. I’m just a scapegoat for everyone. All my life, a scapegoat.
In December 1995, he’s saying [the deal took place]. I was out the country, so that is all right. Like I told you, in 1995, I came back in May, and in August I was in hospital for four months. In December 1995, I was in Israel. In December 1995 is even better, I was in hospital. Even January 1996, I was in hospital. I was in hospital from July right through to the end of the year. And I was living in London. I wasn’t even living here. When I came back from Israel, I went straight to live in London. In Mill Hill.
I know where I was! In December 1995, I was in Clearwater in America for four weeks. Miami. In London, at my sister’s. I was in hospital for four months. Napsbury General beside Arsenal’s training ground in Colney Hatch Lane.
If it was four hundred grand, why would I be signing on? That’s all bollocks. First of all he [Haase] is an informer, then he is planting guns. He chops and changes with the weather to whatever is going to help him that day.
But some of Simon Bakerman’s denials are not convincing. At first, he said he was in Israel in the winter of ’95 – in fact he was in the UK. Then he claimed to be in a wheelchair at the time of the Royal Oak meeting. But he was confined to a wheelchair after an accident with a gun six months later.
Bakerman claims to have reported everything to the police as far back as 1997, including regular threats on his life. After becoming embroiled in the conspiracy, fearing for his life, Bakerman got a gun – partly for self-protection and partly on behalf of a big gangster he worked for. The gun was owned by one of the gangsters who had helped supply 80 shotguns to Haase for the second phoney gun plant.
SIMON BAKERMAN: In about February 1996, a few fellas I know were tanked up on cocaine. They had a .9 mm pistol and were planning on going into town with it. I don’t know what they were planning but it didn’t seem good. Anyway, they were pissing around with it and I saw where it was all leading and decided to intervene. I managed to wrestle it away from the fella who had it. They weren’t happy about it but they respected me.
A friend of mine advised me to bury it in case something happened. So I went and buried it in a field. A few days later, I told my friend what I’d done and where I had buried it, and she went, ‘My God! That is where a school playing field is. It won’t take long before kids find that then.’
I realised that kids might find it and the results could be fatal, so I went back and dug it up. Took it home to the shed and began cleaning it. As I had it, cleaning the barrel with a cloth, it went off in my hand. The bullet passed through my upper leg and passed out through the calf area. I had an operation. When I was discharged, I was arrested by the police. They had found the gun and I was charged with having a gun without a licence. I said I was a gun enthusiast and I got off. I was in a wheelchair until some time in 1997.
So, if I was in the Royal Oak pub at that time meeting Haase and Bennett, they would have had to wheel me in there.
I was in fear for my life. That’s when I turned to drugs in a big way. I got into cocaine. Soon I was snorting five grams a day, an ounce and a half a week. That’s fifteen hundred pound a week. It ruled my life. It blocked my mind out from all the pressures and threats. It gradually got worse to the stage where I was getting up in the morning and taking drugs. You go to sleep, then next day comes. In the end, you are spending fortunes of money.
When I didn’t have money to take cocaine, I’d get up in the morning and take a sleeping tablet just to waste my life away. I was out of work and started to get the press on my back [as stories of Haase and Bennett leaked out]. Life pressures getting to me. I took drugs to hide away the troubles. They just go out your mind. They wouldn’t go away. Gradually got worse to the stage where I was getting up in the morning not knowing what I was doing.
Towards the late ’90s, when I was 36, 37, it got worse. To start with, it had been a social thing. Do it once. Might not do it for a month or two. But then I’d do it on my own. People didn’t realise. I was a closet person. No one was around me. I would just cover up.
The more you take, the more you
need. That ruled my life. That ruled my movements. That came before anything. Make sure I’ve got something there before I did anything else. Any money I had got blown on that. About a thousand, fifteen hundred pound a week. That’s an ounce and a half a week. But buying it in little bits and bobs. Money I had. Didn’t have to borrow. But my name was good for borrowing money at the time. I was drawing it all out on credit cards.
Once I started having personal problems, it took over my life completely. It ruled my life. Couldn’t deal with the problems. Rumours of the stories going around in the press. My friends stayed away from me. I’d do it in my room, in the toilet. People always asking me why I had a cold. My nose is ruined. Needs a bone put in and everything. It’s all gone. If it stays in your nose, it just burns through your bone, doesn’t it? If I pressed hard on it [my nose], it would just snap.
21
SCANDAL AND CONTROVERSY
The release was still not publicly known. Most people, including the officers of Merseyside Police, thought that the earliest Haase and Bennett would be considered for parole was 2002, as laid down by the Criminal Justice Act 1991. Failing this, they might qualify for release two-thirds of the way through their sentences in 2005.
No one thought for one moment that under Michael Howard, Britain’s biggest drug dealers would be freed earlier. In fact, just three months before Haase and Bennett got out, on 30 March 1996, Howard had reassured the public in his infamous ‘prison works’ speech to the Conservative Central Council in Harrogate that criminals would serve the exact sentences they were handed down. Incredibly, as he launched a White Paper called ‘Sentencing’, Howard boomed, ‘And tough deterrent sentences too for professional drug traffickers. They prey on the young and the innocent. They make money out of other people’s misery. And they must be made to pay for it.’ He went on, ‘When criminals have been caught and convicted, they must be properly punished. And the proper place for the most persistent and dangerous criminals is prison. It’s needed to protect the public.
Druglord Page 28
