Fugitive gangster "could be dead"

3:33pm Tuesday 7th October 2008

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A FEARED criminal who claimed to have paid a detective £2,000 per week in exchange for information from police computers could now be dead, a court has heard.

Allan Foster's corrupt relationship with Detective Constable John Jones, 48, was exposed when the gangster was named prime suspect in the murder of David Rice, Newcastle Crown Court was told.

Mr Rice, 42, was shot nine times as he sat in his vehicle at Mardsen Grotto car park in South Shields, South Tyneside in May 2006.

Prosecutors claim Foster, 32, was able to stay one step ahead of the law and continue running his criminal empire because of the information he received from Det Con Jones.

It is claimed just weeks before the killing Foster treated Jones to a chauffeur driven night out in London, visiting private clubs and Stringfellows, before they went back to Foster's rented mews house in the capital for cocaine and call girls.

Det Con Jones denies misconduct and is being tried by a jury.

Foster, who was also a police informer, has never been arrested or questioned in connection with the killing as he fled the country soon after it was committed.

Detective Superintendent Barbara Franklin, who is in charge of the Rice murder squad, told Newcastle Crown Court how the Northumbria force has intelligence that Foster is dead.

But she added: "I have intelligence that says he is dead but we have not got a body to match that intelligence.

"I would need something to show me he was dead before I believed that."

The officer said the force also had intelligence he is in Spain.

Detective Franklin told the court how Foster was so feared she was initially met with a wall of silence during the early stages of her inquiries into the shooting.

She told the court: "Foster was responsible for the majority of the drugs coming into South Tyneside, if not the North East.

"He was dealing on a huge scale.

"He was living well beyond his means, driving Porches and Mercedes, shopping in Prada.

"He had a history of violence, his origins were with the BOSS, a notorious gang.

"He was feared by many.

"Throughout the inquiry we had problems with people not wanting to speak to the police because of the fear Alan Foster would get them and kill them."

Ms Franklin said Foster's bragging about having a cop "in his pocket" made the already difficult inquiry almost impossible.

She said: "It was a huge investigation.

"Within the first 24 hours the Rice family had little trust in the police at that stage and there was a reluctance to speak to the inquiry team.

"The reluctance was because they told me anything they told the inquiry team would get back to Allan Foster because Allan Foster was paying a police officer to keep him up to date with what was going on with our inquiries."

Det Con Jones denies his relationship with Foster was corrupt.

He denies three charges of misconduct in public office.

His life long friend Bruce McCall, 42, who introduced him to Foster, denies aiding and abetting the misconduct and class c drug charges.

The trial continues.