Jamie Acourt Wiki

                                                Jamie Acourt Biography

Who is Jamie Acourt ?

A suspect in the murder of Stephen Lawrence has complained that he cannot be transferred to an open prison after being unable to pay the £90,000 he made from a £3m drug plot.

Jamie Acourt, 45, was jailed for nine years at Kingston Crown Court in 2018 after spending more than two years on the run, living in Spain under the alias Simon Alfonzo.

He complained to Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday that he “can’t move to an open prison or anything” because he didn’t repay the amount ordered by the court, adding that he was “happy” to have his sentence extended, although the judge said that would not erase his debt.

Acourt had headed a gang that moved £7.4m worth of resin between London and the North East between 2014 and 2016, and admitted his involvement in 28 trips that sent up to £5.6m worth of drugs.

Arrested

He was found living in the trendy Diagonal Mar district of Barcelona, ​​until he was finally arrested in May 2018 as he was leaving a gym.

A judge ruled that he personally made £500,000 from the scheme and had £90,000 in hidden assets, which he was ordered last January to pay back in ill-gotten gains or face an additional year to his jail sentence by a judge in court. of the Kingston Crown.

Acourt was one of five men arrested in the murder of 18-year-old Stephen, stabbed to death in Eltham, southeast London, on April 22, 1993.

A court appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court on Tuesday by video link from Brixton Prison for failing to pay the confiscation order, which has risen to more than £95,000 with interest from £19.73 a day.

The court heard that Acourt will be released on November 3, but asked that his default sentence be activated, meaning he will spend another six months behind bars.

“I’m happy to take the default judgment because I have no way to pay the money,” he said.

His brother Neil Acourt

But District Judge Daniel Sternberg said he would not trigger the sentence while Acourt was in jail, explaining that he had no say in the jail where he is being held.

He added: ‘Even if he serves the predetermined sentence that doesn’t eliminate the debt he has to pay.

“But it is one of the tools the court has to pressure you to pay.”

The judge said the case will be relisted before Acourt’s October release date.

His brother Neil Acourt, 46, who was also arrested for the murder of Mr Lawrence, was jailed for more than six years for the drug plot which saw some 750kg of cannabis resin, with an estimated street value of around £3 million, moved between London and the South. Shields, Tyne and Wear.

Only two of the suspects, Gary Dobson and David Norris, were brought to justice and both were sentenced to life in prison in 2012 after being found guilty of murder at the Old Bailey.

The fifth suspect, Luke Knight, remains free.

The drug plot saw couriers make the 600-mile round trip to South Shields to deliver drugs, collect money, or both, with 34 trips made over the two-year period.

Once the money was collected, it was delivered to either Jamie or his brother Neil in south-east London.

Murder

Some of the delivery men were the parents of their respective partners.

One of the conspirators, Lee Birks, was the father of Jamie Acourt’s partner, while another, Jack Vose, was Neil’s father-in-law.

Neil Acourt was released from prison in March 2019 and served less than half of his six-year sentence for conspiracy to supply Class B drugs.

The brothers have always denied any involvement in Stephen’s murder.

Stephen’s death

At the time of Stephen’s death, the Acourts described themselves as the Krays, modeled after the brothers who dominated London’s criminal underworld in the 1960s.

The gang they were in is believed to have been responsible for a series of violent attacks, invariably with knives.

Jamie Acourt, of no fixed address and formerly of The Drive, Bexley, had admitted conspiracy to supply cannabis.