Elton John tribute cleared of planning to supply £100k of cocaine

Jurors took less than three hours to find Scot singer Colin Lowe not guilty of possession with intent to supply the block of class A drugs found inside a ‘stage light’ box.

The cocaine, worth an estimated £25,000 wholesale and £100,000 on the street, and cutting agent benzocaine were found when Oxfordshire police pulled over the 57-year-old’s Mercedes on the A34 on February 13. Lowe was on his way from Scotland to Bournemouth to see his son and perform Valentines gigs.

The Hamilton man's fingerprints were not found on the drugs packaging. Nor was there any incriminating evidence on his phone, Oxford Crown Court heard this week.

From the witness box, the Magic Circle official said he had no idea there was cocaine in the vehicle. He had allowed an acquaintance, known to him as ‘Charlie’ or by the nickname ‘Chooks’, to place what he thought were cigarettes in a stage light box after he was asked to take the tobacco product to Chooks’ associate on the south coast.

He said: “I was just trying to help him out. I took his stuff for nothing, just to help him. It wasn’t about financial gain.”

The first mention of ‘Chooks’ and his cigarettes, which Lowe accepted he thought might have been ‘dodgy’, came during the trial.

Asked why no mention was made of the character when he was interviewed by the police, the defendant said he feared repercussions; although the jury was not told that there had been any.

Quizzed by prosecutor David Parvin, he denied ‘making up’ his defence about Chooks and the cigarettes.

Summing up the case to the jury on Wednesday (August 16), trial judge Recorder John Bate-Williams said the panel would bear in mind that, ‘if he’s being truthful he was willing to undertake the transport of cigarettes on which no duty had been paid’.

“You may think on his own case he was up for something of a strange smuggling operation,” the judge added.

Lowe was supported by a series of character references attesting to his honesty, charm and dedication to the world of magic.

Colin Lowe leaves Oxford Crown Court on Tuesday Picture: Oxford Mail (Image: Oxford Mail)

One reference, Rev Mike McCurry, stumped up £30,000 as a security to ensure Lowe was released on bail. Asked why he had offered so much of his own money, Mr McCurry said: “I believe him.”

The minister is a former Scottish Premier League referee who reportedly gave up his membership of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland in 2010 after facing disciplinary action.

Mr McCurry told jurors on Tuesday: “Given what I know of Colin, there is absolutely no way he would have set off on a journey knowing that there was cocaine in his car or in his possession.”

The minister was in court to see Lowe, of Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, found not guilty of possession with intent to supply class A drugs on Wednesday afternoon.

Following the verdicts, the judge told the defendant: “I’d like your character witness and your character witnesses whose statements were read out to know and be told their evidence was of great importance in this case where, on the face of it, there was a real likelihood of an adverse inference being drawn from your possession of a very large amount of cocaine.”

Rev Mike McCurry leaves the crown court Picture: Oxford Mail (Image: Oxford Mail)