Gangster recruits jailed for debt collection help

The two men were sentenced at Sheffield Crown Court

Two men who accompanied a drug baron to enforce a debt collection, have been jailed.

Sheffield Crown Court heard how Liverpool career criminal John Haase travelled to Sheffield to collect £280,000 while in the company of Connor Lewis-Jones, 26, and John Hayes, 49.

While Lewis-Jones' and Hayes' involvement was "relatively minor", Haase, when unable to enforce the payment and set a Range Rover on fire.

Lewis-Jones and Hayes, both from Liverpool, pleaded guilty to assisting an offender and were both sentenced to 12 months imprisonment.

The Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC, was told Lewis-Jones accompanied Haase from Liverpool to Sheffield on one occasion while Hayes came along twice.

Rebecca Randall, prosecuting, said the visits to the victim's home had been to "threaten and frighten".

These visits subsequently ended with Haase's arson attack in March 2020 that caused £63,000 of damage to the Range Rover and nearby property.

Haase was on licence from prison when he committed the crime and was subsequently jailed for nine years in January.

The 74-year-old had previously been imprisoned for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice in relation to a Royal Pardon obtained by providing bogus "tip-offs" about firearms.

John Haase was jailed for the arson attack earlier this year

Hayes, of Foscote Road and Lewis-Jones, of Melbury Road, have previous convictions and had each suffered "personal tragedies".

Judge Richardson said a "sense of mercy" borne from these mitigating factors and their lack of involvement in the threats and arson, had led him to deem a 12-month sentence appropriate.

He told the men: "[Haase] is a very dangerous man, he is a practised and professional criminal.

"You both are not in that league but you are just the sort of individuals he recruits to perform relatively minor acts of support in his criminal enterprises.

"There must be an element of deterrence in sentencing cases of this kind."

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