One of the most senior British police officers ever to be convicted of corruption offences is facing jail

Ali Dizaei arrives with his wife at Southwark crown court. Photograph: Alastair Grant/AP

after a jury found he had tried to frame an innocent man and told a series of lies in an attempt to cover up his abuse of office.

Ali Dizaei, a commander with Scotland Yard, was convicted of falsely arresting a web designer in a dispute over money and then lying in official statements by claiming he had been assaulted and threatened by the man.

Dizaei showed little reaction, but while waiting for the verdict, his head was bowed and his brow furrowed. After the jury announced its unanimous verdict, his wife hid her face as she tried to avoid crying.

Dizaei's 27-year police career will end with him being drummed out of the force in disgrace. He is almost certain to lose his pension after a clash in the street outside a restaurant which saw him abuse his authority as one of the Britain's top officers.

It is the second time he has been convicted of the offences. Dizaei was first convicted in 2010 but that conviction was quashed by the court of appeal in May 2011 after evidence emerged that Dizaei's accuser, Waad al-Baghdadi, had falsely claimed £27,000 in welfare benefits for his dead father, which raised questions about his reliability as a witness.

After 11 hours of deliberations, the jury in the current trial decided it did not believe the police chief's account and instead believed the evidence of Baghdadi, despite his conviction for fraud.

After the verdict Mrs Dizaei vowed to fight on: "I promise you I will never give up. We will go back to the court of appeal. I will never give up."

Dizaei was an outspoken critic of the police on race, leader of the National Black Police Association (NBPA), and a key figure in a race war that erupted at the top of Scotland Yard in the summer of 2008.

He had been cleared of criminal charges in 2003 and returned to duty despite Scotland Yard suspecting him of serious offences. That inquiry had intensified after MI5 had suspicions that the Iranian-born officer was a danger to national security.

In the case at Southwark crown court, the crown alleged that on 18 July 2008, Dizaei had clashed with Baghdadi, who claimed the police commander owed him £600 for a website he had designed.

Dizaei then arrested Baghdadi, using the special call sign given to him as a commander – Metro 35 – to call for back-up to take his prisoner away. He claimed to have been assaulted and poked in the stomach with the mouthpiece of a shisha pipe. Dizaei filled out official statements and maintained his false account on the witness stand.

Baghdadi spent 24 hours in a cell and six weeks on bail before it was decided he would not face charges. Scotland Yard handed the case over to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which investigated Dizaei. He becomes the most high-profile scalp obtained by a watchdog that has faced questions about its effectiveness.

The jury at Southwark crown court was unanimous in finding Dizaei guilty of misconduct in public office and perverting the course of justice. They had begun considering their verdict on Thursday afternoon.

A doctor who examined Dizaei said he had faked injuries he claimed to have suffered during the arrest.

The jury convicted Dizaei despite hearing evidence Baghdadi had previously lied. The jury heard that the web designer:

• Was accused of glassing a man in the street outside a central Londonnightclub in September 2009, according to two witnesses who testified in court.

• Gave false details in the first trial about his real name, age and date of birth.

• Used false documents to get into Britain from Syria.

• Was convicted in September 2011 of committing benefit fraud from 2007 to 2010 and sentenced to eight months' imprisonment, and was released on the eve of the trial.

In his closing speech, prosecutor Peter Wright QC said Dizaei had suffered a "humiliating loss of face" on the night and went on to deliberately arrest Baghdadi on a "cooked up allegation".

Dizaei wrongly arrested Baghdadi after a row over a website but it was a "wholesale abuse of his power", said Wright, adding Dizaei believed he could do what he wanted and told the jury: "Woe to anyone who crosses his path."

After his 2010 conviction, Dizaei was jailed for four years and served one year before being released after his successful appeal.

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Spain's most famous judge, the charismatic and controversial investigating magistrate Baltasar Garzón, sat in the dock at the country's supreme court

 

Spain's most famous judge, the charismatic and controversial investigating magistrate Baltasar Garzón, sat in the dock at the country's supreme court on Tuesday morning to face charges that may bring his career to an abrupt and dramatic end. Garzón, who ordered the arrest in London of Chile's General Pinochet, entered the court wearing his judge's gown for what may be one of the last times, as he faces being struck off as a magistrate for up to 17 years. He told the Guardian he was in good spirits, though he has privately said he believes his fellow judges are determined to find him guilty in this case or one of the two others he must face in the coming weeks and months. "I'm fine," he said before entering a courtroom decorated with a massive glass chandelier and large crucifix. A panel of seven judges was set to hear evidence over two or three days. In the first of three separate cases against him at Madrid's supreme court, Garzón is accused of breaking rules by approving police taps on conversations between defence lawyers and their clients in a corruption investigation focusing on the prime minister, Mariano Rajoy's People's party (PP). Crowds of protesters gathered outside the court to support the judge, whose supporters claim is the subject of a campaign of persecution triggered by his decision to investigate human rights crimes committed under Franco. A second, even more controversial, trial is to start next week. It will see Garzón accused of twisting the law in order to open a formal investigation into the death or disappearance of 110,000 people allegedly killed under Franco's regime. Garzón has pledged to fight, but privately believes he will be found guilty because he has made too many enemies. He was suspended because of the Franco case in May 2010, but denies all the allegations. Court sources said the hearing that starts on Tuesday will last two or three days. Rajoy was a ferocious critic of Garzón as he helped uncover a network of corruption involving PP regional governments in Valencia and Madrid. "Just because a judge is investigating a crime doesn't mean that he can do whatever he wants," said Ignacio Peláez, one of the lawyers whose prison conversations with clients were recorded. "Even criminals have certain rights." His defence is expected to argue that, since another judge backed Garzón's move to tape the defence lawyers' conversations, he cannot be accused of deliberately dictating measures generally known to be against the law. Both Garzón's supporters and the rightwing Clean Hands trade union, which brought the case against him for investigating Franco's crimes, believe the supreme court has programmed the corruption case first in order to draw attention away from the Franco case. "It is the only thing we agree on," said Miguel Bernad of Clean Hands. "He wants the Franco trial first so he can make out he is the victim of pro-Francoists. We want it first because we lodged our writ long before the others." Relatives of those killed by Franco's regime will be among the protesters. Argentinian Manoli Labrador, whose father, two brothers and sister-in-law were killed by the military juntas in Argentina, will join them. "He has always listened to the victims," she said. "That is why we must support him." Garzón made use of international human rights laws to bring groundbreaking cases against Argentinian junta thugs in Madrid, forcing Argentinian courts to eventually open their own investigations. The arrest of Pinochet brought two sentences from the law lords in the UK allowing for his extradition to Spain. That sparked a similar round of cases in Chile. A third case, involving allegations that Garzón should have ruled himself out of investigating a complaint against the Santander bank, has not yet been scheduled. Prosecutors claim Garzón had received money from Santander while on a year's sabbatical at New York University – something the university denies.

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Elton John’s husband attacks Madonna after Golden Globes win, calling her ‘embarrassing’ and ‘desperate’

 

David Furnish was one angry man following last night’s Golden Globes in Hollywood, attacking Madonna for her ‘embarrassing’ speech (watch it below) after she beat his husband Elton John to Best Original Song. Advertisement >> Shortly after Madonna won the award for single Masterpiece – which she wrote for her own film W.E. – David logged onto Facebook and criticised the singer and the ceremony. He typed angrily: “Madonna. Best song???? F**k off!!! “Madonna winning Best Original Song truly shows how these awards have nothing to do with merit. Her acceptance speech was embarrassing in its narcissism.”

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Tax adviser guilty of fraud scheme

 

A professional tax adviser from Bedfordshire has been convicted of trying to defraud honest taxpayers of £70 million, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) said. David Perrin spent his cut of the stolen cash on expensive second homes, exotic holidays, works of art and luxury cars, a spokeswoman said. The 46-year-old, of Leagrave, Luton, Bedfordshire, was found guilty at Blackfriars Crown Court and will be sentenced next month, she added. Perrin, deputy managing director at Vantis Tax Ltd, devised and operated a tax avoidance scheme which he sold to wealthy taxpayers in order to exploit the law on giving shares to charity, she said. The scheme allowed him to pocket more than £2 million in fees from unsuspecting clients. He used a network of finance professionals to advise more than 600 wealthy clients to buy shares, worth a few pence each, in four new companies he had set up, the spokeswoman said. He then listed the companies on the Channel Islands Stock Exchange and paid people money from an offshore account to buy and sell the shares simply to inflate their price. The share owners then donated 329 million shares to various unsuspecting registered charities and tried to claim £70 million tax relief on a total of £213 million of income and company profits. This was based on the shares being worth up to £1 each, rather than the pennies they were originally bought for. Perrin also used the bogus scheme to claim money back, the spokeswoman said. The scheme proved so popular that Vantis employees performed a smug celebratory song at their annual conference, to the tune of I will Survive, she said. It included the verse: "They should have changed that stupid law, they should have buggered charity, but they have left that lovely tax relief, for folks to pay to me." Jim Graham, HMRC criminal investigator, said: "With his knowledge of the tax system, Perrin thought that he was one step ahead of both HMRC and the law. "This cynical fraud not only stole millions of pounds from taxpayers, but also conned innocent charities into accepting gifts of virtually worthless shares, just so Perrin could inflate his own criminal earnings." Perrin was charged with cheating the revenue by dishonestly submitting and dishonestly facilitating and inducing others to submit claims for tax relief which falsely stated values of shares which were gifted to charities. He will be sentenced on February 9 and confiscation proceedings are under way, the spokeswoman said.

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Top former art dealer faces 87 charges after fraud probe

 

One of Australia's former leading art dealers, Ronald Coles, faces up to 10 years in jail after being charged today with 87 offences relating to an alleged multimillion-dollar investment art fraud scheme. Mr Coles, 64, was ordered to appear at Gosford police station at 10am today. Fraud Squad detectives formally charged him following an "extremely protracted and legally intricate" two-year investigation into his business affairs. Under the Crimes Act, Mr Coles was charged with 77 counts of "larceny as a bailee" and a further 10 counts of "director/officer cheat or defraud". For more than 30 years, Mr Coles specialised in fine art by some of Australia's most celebrated artists, including Sir Arthur Streeton, Eugene von Guerard, Brett Whiteley and Norman Lyndsay. Advertising on national radio and television, he offered clients an opportunity to boost their life savings through the purchase of investment art, which he bought and sold on their behalf, using their superannuation funds. NSW Police launched Strike Force Glasson in January 2009 after a Fairfax investigation unearthed dozens of investors who were missing millions of dollars in lost art and money, all allegedly retained by Mr Coles. Today's police charges relate to more than $8 million in financial loss to a total of 43 clients nationwide. Mr Coles failed to make conditional bail of $50,000. It is understood he offered a car and paintings as surety but they were refused. He is due to appear at Gosford Local Court shortly.

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