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Former Roller cleared of drugs charges

THE former lead singer of the Bay City Rollers said today that he was looking forward to a "bright new start" after being cleared of drug dealing.

Les McKeown, 50, was found not guilty after a two-week trial at Basildon Crown Court.

McKeown, former Rollers guitarist Patrick McGlynn, 47, and financial systems analyst Alistair Murray, 36, were all acquitted of conspiring to supply cocaine.

Jurors were told that McGlynn, Murray, car dealer Tony Burt, 48, and engineer Jason Abbott, 34, were arrested by armed police in a hotel car park in Waltham Abbey, Essex, in May 2005.

Detectives and Customs officers found more £16,000 in bundles of notes in a washbag in McGlynn and Mr Murray's black Clio.

In another car in which Burt and Abbott had arrived, police found a bag of cocaine worth at least £16,000. The drug would have had a street value of around £50,000 once processed, jurors heard.

Burt, of Beckton, east London, and Abbott, of Barkingside, Essex, had admitted conspiring to supply cocaine, jurors were told.

Prosecutors said McKeown, of Hackney, east London, arranged the deal. Jurors were told that McKeown, Mr McGlynn and Burt contacted each other more than 30 times by mobile phone of the day police swooped.

But McKeown told jurors he believed that Mr McGlynn, of Liberton Brae, Edinburgh, was meeting Burt in order to buy a car.

He said he had put the two men in touch and contacted them by phone in order to give Mr McGlynn directions to the hotel, discuss music with him, and let Burt know that Mr McGlynn was running late.

McKeown denied having "anything to do with supplying cocaine" but added: "I have taken it - maybe two or three times a year."

Jurors were told that, when arrested in June, McKeown had a small amount of cocaine wrapped in a till receipt in his wallet along with a small piece of the drug Viagra.

Mr McGlynn told jurors that he had driven from his home to meet Burt in order to buy a car.

He said the money in the washbag was for the car. Mr Murray, of Somerset Place, Edinburgh, had given him a lift from Edinburgh so he could drive his new car back.

Mr McGlynn said he did not know that Burt was a "drug dealer" and did he not have a "chronic drug habit" at the time he was arrested.

Mr McGlynn said he was "comfortable" financially and had no need to resort to dealing in hard drugs to raise cash.

Jurors heard that, at the time they were arrested, Mr McGlynn and McKeown were preparing to take part in a tour featuring other `70s pop acts, including David Cassidy and David Essex.

Both still played in a band called Les McKeown's Legendary Bay City Rollers, the court was told.

The jury of five men and seven women deliberated for about four hours before returning not guilty verdicts.

McKeown said he would celebrate his acquittal with champagne and was looking forward to a 30-day UK tour starting in Croydon, south London, on February 9.

"I was always confident that the jury would consider it weak evidence," he said outside court.

"It has been terribly stressful on me and my family. I don't know if I feel bitter. There may be a hint of that. The police do what they do and we have to defend ourselves, I suppose."

He added: "I'm looking forward to a bright new start. I'm looking to starting my new tour. I'm a trouper and I will be on stage in Croydon on February the 9th.

"You'll note that my business associates believed in my innocence because they haven't cancelled the tour.

"This case has been disastrous for me financially because the police have had my passport and I haven't been able to travel to Australia, Japan and America, where I was due to play."

mfl