The Serious Fraud Office in Britain is investigating allegations of
corruption involving a juror in the 1986 Guinness trial, the Court ofAppeal heard today.
Lord Justice Judge, sitting with Mr Justice Collins and Mr JusticeLeveson, said some of the issues under investigation might amount to"no more than gossip or hearsay".
However, if certain facts were to be established, the allegationswould "obviously be of significance", the judge said.
"We have discussed the problem and we would need some convincingthat we can just brush it aside," he added.
Few details of the allegations were revealed in open court todayduring a preliminary hearing concerning Mr Jack Lyons, the financierwho is appealing against his conviction in the Guinness scandal.
Three others involved in the alleged illegal share-support racket -Ernest Saunders, Gerald Ronson and Anthony Parnes - have also had their convictions referred back to the appeal court in an attempt to clear theirnames.
Mr Parnes' counsel, Mr Julian Knowles, who submitted papers to thecourt regarding the corruption allegations, said there appeared to be"a slight dichotomy as to what the position was, whether it was ajuror or a relative of the juror".
He added: "The police have been interviewed, they have given theirrecollections and it now rests on the individual in question."
The investigation is expected to conclude on March 30th whenstatements from all the SFO officers involved will be sent to thecourt and defence lawyers by the Treasury solicitor.
Mr Lyons (84) who suffers from cancer, is determined to clear hisname before his death. He was fined £3m for his role in the Guinnessaffair.
Mr Saunders, chief executive of Guinness at the time of the £2.6 bntakeover of Distillers in 1986, was jailed for five years in 1990 after beingconvicted of false accounting, theft and conspiracy.
His sentence was halved on appeal and he was released from openprison after serving only 10 months when doctors decided he wassuffering from dementia.
Mr Ronson was sentenced to 12 months and fined £5m after beingconvicted of two counts of false accounting, one count of theft, andof conspiracy to contravene the Prevention of Fraud Act 1958.
Mr Parnes was convicted of four counts of false accounting and twocounts of theft and had his original sentence of two and a half yearsreduced to 21 months on appeal in May 1991.
Initial appeals against conviction failed, but later the EuropeanCourt of Human Rights ruled the men had an unfair trial because theywere compelled to provide information to Department of Trade andIndustry inspectors which was then used against them as primaryevidence in the trial.
PA