A convicted murderer behind bars for life has hatched an elaborate plot to help criminal mates dodge decades behind bars for a £45million MDMA smuggling racket.
The Mastermind Inside Prison Walls
William Todd, 61, was already 21 years into two life sentences when he masterminded a scheme to get Danny Brown, 58, Stefan Baldauf, 66, and four others off the hook. The gang had been caught trying to smuggle 448kg of MDMA hidden in an industrial digger’s arm to Australia.
Brown and Baldauf received hefty jail terms of 26 and 28 years in December 2022 after a nail-biting National Crime Agency (NCA) probe.
Jury Tampering Claims Fake but Persistent
During the June 2022 trial, false claims surfaced at Kingston Crown Court, alleging jury tampering. The bogus reports claimed five jurors were bribed to convict Brown and Baldauf.
The judge immediately halted the trial to let the NCA’s Anti-Corruption Unit investigate. However, it soon emerged two jurors named in the claims had actually been discharged months before. The trial resumed.
Spying, Lies and a Fake Passport
Court CCTV revealed an unknown man entering during jury swearing-in and leaving shortly after. He was Danny Thomas, 46, from Reading. Thomas secretly recorded jurors’ names and acted on Todd’s orders.
Failing the first sabotage attempt, Todd and Thomas recruited Sheree Avard, 41, from Woking, to phone the court pretending to be someone else and fish for solicitor details.
Under the fake identity of Ioana Andrei, Avard contacted Brown’s lawyer, claiming a juror had confessed to being pressured to convict. When the conspiracy risked exposure, they fabricated a fake passport and bribed a Romanian woman and a solicitor to back a false statement.
Busted and Sentenced
Thomas was arrested at Heathrow arriving from Dubai in November 2022 with a phone containing damning evidence – recorded calls, messages, and the number for Todd’s secret phone, slyly saved as “Ari Gold” from TV’s Entourage.
Both Thomas and Avard pleaded guilty to conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. At Southwark Crown Court, Thomas got three years and four months, while Avard received one year.
Todd, a headline-grabbing prison escapee from 2001, was convicted of the same charge and slapped with another seven years behind bars. His reign of crime shows no sign of ending anytime soon.
