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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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UK: 'Famous as Beckham'
ic South London
Tuesday 16 Dec 2003 A CHEF accused of running an Amsterdam-style dope cafe has told a court his cooking skills made him as famous as David Beckham. The court heard Errol Anderson, 47, was caught with hundreds of pounds worth of cannabis stashed under the floorboards of The Green Leaf cafe in Stockwell after a raid in 2002. Customers bought food at the front counter, then slipped out the back for a choice of grass, skunk weed or cannabis resin, Inner London Crown Court heard. Anderson pocketed hundreds of thousands of pounds selling the drug to his special customers and then hid laundered money in property purchases, it is claimed. He told the court his famous Jamaican fare was sold at events from Notting Hill Carnival and Glastonbury festival to the Henley Royal Regatta. But when The Green Leaf cafe was raided, drugs squad officers found more than 2kg of cannabis in "deal bags". On Friday he was asked about police surveillance evidence of him getting in and out of various cars across London. "I am famous, just like David Beckham, because of my lovely cooking," he said. "You follow me, I will walk out of here and someone will give me a lift, maybe to Stockwell. "I get out of that car and someone else will come and offer to give me a lift to Brixton. Everyone knows me; I am famous." The court heard Anderson was arrested after police raided the shop in April last year. He was released on bail, but allegedly returned almost immediately to drug dealing. Between April 2002 and January this year, when Anderson was re-arrested, around UKP230,000 cash was credited to the bank account he shared with wife, Audriana Witter, 49. Anderson and Witter, both of Ribbles-dale Road, Streatham, each deny one charge of conspiring to contravene the drug trafficking act. Estate agent Gassell Gordon, 55, of Canonbury Road, Forest Hill, who allegedly helped the pair hide the proceeds of their drug-dealing sales through property, also denies one charge of conspiring to contravene the drug trafficking act. Witter denies a further eight charges of concealing or transferring the proceeds of drug trafficking. Anderson denies a further 10 charges of concealing or transferring the proceeds of drug trafficking, three charges of possessing a class-B drug with intent and one charge of permitting premises to be used for the supply of a class-B drug. The trial continues.
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