An ex-Schroders employee has been sentenced to eight years in prison after being convicted of his role in supplying £6m ($8.3m, €6.8m) worth of cocaine.
The police found 49kg of the Class A drug, alongside expensive designer watches and shopping receipts from Harrods, in the homes and cars of Joe Sawyer, 26, and his accomplices, Lazarus Loizides, 27, and Robert Beckley, 31.
Sawyer worked in a junior role in a back office function at Schroders for 14 months before being dismissed for gross misconduct, a spokesperson for the FTSE 100 fund group confirmed to our sister publication Portfolio Adviser.
He and his accomplices all pleaded guilty in their trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court on 25 November 2020.
The chase
The trio were tracked by undercover police in London when Loizides was spotted outside Sawyer’s home in South Woodford, east London, putting a blue holdall into a van driven by Beckley, the court heard.
Beckley was then followed onto the M25 where he was stopped by the police who found 5kg of cocaine.
Loizides was later arrested in Islington carrying large quantities of cash and a ‘burner’ phone. Police found 3kg of cocaine, over £55,000 in cash, a number of expensive watches and a number of receipts for high-value purchases at Harrods at Loizides’ address.
Sawyer’s arrest followed 45 minutes later.
After locating the keys to the van, officers found 24 one-kilo bricks of cocaine in a Sports Direct bag, and a further 17 one-kilo bricks hidden under the floor.
“The lengths these men went to try and conceal their criminal activities by having secret hides in their cars is not something an everyday person would even think to consider – but then again most everyday person wouldn’t even consider transporting almost 50kg of cocaine in their vehicles,” said Driss Hayoukane, detective chief inspector in the Met’s specialist crime command.
“We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, we are committed to putting handcuffs on those involved in drugs supply offences and making sure that they spend a significant amount of time in prison.”
On 4 February, Loizides, Sawyer and Beckley were sentenced to 11 years, eight years, and four years and four months in prison, respectively.
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