THE police officer to who Liverpool gangster John Haase first turned informant told a court he “wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him”. City crimelord Haase was arrested in 1992 less than 12 months after being released from a 14-year sentence for armed robbery, Kingston crown court was told yesterday. He was arrested at his Clubmoor home by then-Det Sgt Kevin Clague, part of Merseyside police’s serious crime squad, after being found with a gun. Yesterday in the trial of Paul Cook – who was later Haase’s Customs handler – Mr Clague, now retired from the force, said within hours Haase was talking about offering information in return for bail and a reduction in any possible sentence. Mr Clague said when Haase was given bail by the court the next day, he began informing. Within days Haase was ringing Mr Clague, the court heard, to tell him about a deal involving a black Austin Maestro in the car park of Oscar’s pub in Prescot Road, Fairfield. When police searched the car, they found two sub-machine guns and a silencer but despite watching the area, no-one ever went near the car or was ever arrested. Haase later told police where they could find the cash bags, clothes and gun from a Co-op robbery in Page Moss where a guard was shot and also about explosives hidden in the compost heap at the back of a Bootle house. In return, the court heard, when Haase came to be sentenced in May 1993 over the gun he was caught with, the judge was given a letter outlining his co-operation. Instead of being sent to jail, he was given a two-year suspended sentence. Gibson Grenfell QC, prosecuting, asked Mr Clague: “At the time Haase was sentenced, did you have any doubts about the genuineness of the information he was supplying?” Mr Clague replied: “I thought the information was solid and genuine.”
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