THREE men who were jailed for a plot to smuggle five tons of cocaine from Colombia have been refused a chance to take their cases to the Supreme Court.
Robert Rich, 46, from Barnsley, and two other men Russell Knaggs, 44 and Phillip Hadley, 58, are serving sentences totalling 52 years after they were convicted of the conspiracy in 2012.
The trio were said to have conspired with others, including a Colombian serving time in a UK jail.
Their case was in court again last December after they claimed vital evidence had been obtained as a result of illegal email monitoring in the US.
It revolved around a Yahoo account, which members of the gang had used to secretly communicate with each other through draft emails.
Lawyers questioned how prosecutors got their hands on such a vast array of messages between the gang.
Their appeal was dismissed in August when judges led by Lady Justice Sharp said there was ‘no proper basis’ for suggesting the emails were illegally obtained.
However, the men attempted to fight on by asking the court to grant permission to take the case to the Supreme Court.
They said the case involved a legal point of such importance that it should be decided by the country’s most senior judges.
But Lady Justice Sharp returned to the Court of Appeal to dismiss the trio’s bid in a short ruling in London.
“The application to certify a point of law of general public importance is refused, as is the application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court,” she said.
In her ruling on their appeal earlier this year, the judge said Knaggs, of Conisbrough, played an ‘organisational’ role in the failed smuggling plot from his cell at Lowdham Grange Prison, in Nottinghamshire.
Hadley, of Humberston Fitties near Cleethorpes, was to provide money and to arrange contacts, including travel to South America.
Rich, of Burton Road, Barnsley, was responsible for contact with Knaggs, meeting contacts, attending meetings and as the man ‘on the ground’ in South America.
Another man also serving time in Lowdham Grange, 57-year-old Colombian prisoner Jesus Anibal Ruiz-Henao, was to use his connections to source the drugs.
All four were convicted of conspiracy to import cocaine at two trials at Birmingham Crown Court in 2012.
Knaggs was jailed for 20 years, Hadley for 18 years, Ruiz-Henao for 16 years and Rich for 14 years.
They appealed on the basis that evidence relating to the Yahoo emails known as ‘the slimjim account’ had been wrongly put before jurors.
But Yahoo explained that the material came from automatically saved snapshots of messages, which stayed on its server, said Lady Justice Sharp.
She said the trial judges were ‘entitled to admit’ the disputed material and it was far from the only evidence against the men.
The prosecution cases against them were ‘overwhelming’, she added.
