MIFSUD APPEAL at THE OLD BAILEY ( 1977 )

THE TIMES.

22 NOV , 1977.

Court frees former Soho club owner

 

 

Frank  Saviour  Mifsud, aged 51, who once had gaming and strip clubs, in Soho, London, was freed from a five-year jail sentence by the Court of Appeal yesterday.

 He was cleared of an attempt to suborn a witness. Lord Justice Lawton, sitting with Mr. Justice Gibson, quashed Mr. Mifsud's conviction at the Central Criminal Court on August 13 last year of suborning Harold Stocker, a Soho trader, to give false evidence against two of Mr. Mifsud's rivals at two Central Criminal Court trials in 1967.

The court allowed Mr. Mifsud's appeal on the ground that Judge McKinnon had wrongly allowed the jury to hear inadmissible and highly prejudicial evidence against Mr. Mifsud. It set aside his jail sentence and £50,000 fine and ruled that he should recover the costs of his appeal.

Mr. Mifsud, who was born in Malta, was reported to have been in custody for two years before his trial. He had been extradited from Switzerland to face the perjury charge and a further charge alleging complicity in the murder 20 years ago of Tommy " Scarface " Smithson, of which he was acquitted in March, 1976.