Fraudster held in chains because officers suspected other offences

Lawyers for John Elam told a judge that he was held in chains during his prison sentence for a multi-million-pound fraud because police suspected him of even more serious crimes.

Addressing Judge Scott Wolstenholme in March 2009, Elam’s defence counsel Anthony Barraclough said it was clear from an early stage that officers believed him to be “an international criminal, drug trafficker, money launderer, involved with guns”.

Mr Barraclough said that Elam had been forced to wear handcuffs during his first trial and had been held in a unit known as “The Cage” at maximum-security Wakefield Prison.

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Another barrister representing Elam, Peter Warne, told the judge in July last year that the fraudster had also suffered a stroke while in custody.

Describing Elam’s experience at Wakefield, Mr Warne said: “When he was moved around the prison he was manacled, and he was always in the company of a team of dogs while he was moved from A to B.

“That sort of treatment is normally reserved to people at the very top, the upper echelons of criminal activity.

“The reality is that the evidence the Crown set out publicly in this case was a million miles away from the evidence one would expect for the defendant to be put in that regime.”

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The prosecution of Elam and his criminal associates, led by barristers Jonathan Sandiford and John Harrison, has spanned more than five years. Despite being given jail terms totalling nine years, Elam has already been released from prison on licence while four of his fellow conspirators are still waiting to be sentenced.

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