Drug trial told of ‘top man’ visits

Apr 24 2008 by Kerry-Lynne Doyle, Glamorgan Gazette

A FORMER security guard accused of being involved in an £800,000 drugs conspiracy told police the man behind it was simply an acquaintance.

Former Reliance security guard Christopher Phillips, of Garth Avenue, Maesteg, denies being involved in what the prosecution says was a sophisticated plan to bring cocaine from Liverpool to South Wales.

Police officers seized seven kilos of the drug, one of the largest seizures in the borough, as it was changing hands in the B&Q car park at Waterton, Bridgend, in January last year.

Interviewed following his arrest two months after the seizure, Phillips was challenged about meetings and regular telephone contact he had with a person the jury has been told was the “top man”.

He said this man was someone he once worked with at Sony and had also been in school with his brother.

Cardiff Crown Court heard when they were both on sick leave in 2006, the man started calling on Phillips and inviting him out during the day.

Phillips, who was on sick leave following a road accident, agreed they had visited car showrooms, viewed television equipment worth £10,000 and shopped for mobile phones together in Asda.

They had also shared a weekend in Prague with their partners.

But the court heard he told police: “I don’t make friends that easy, I didn’t look on him as a friend, just an acquaintance.

“I didn’t want to go out looking at cars but he knocked on my door asking me to go for a ride. He was just trying to impress me.”

Phillips admitted he was left “in a hell of a knot” financially after his accident.

But he denied a suggestion from the police that he and the “top man” had been “spending money as if it was going out of fashion” for two men on sick leave.

The case continues.