Ford, Gary

Gary Ford was convicted in November 1996 of 12 counts of burglary, six counts of robbery, and one attempted robbery. Mr Ford received a sentence of 25 years’ imprisonment.

The CCRC received an application for review of Mr Ford’s sentence in November 1997. A further application was made for review of the convictions in April 1999.

Mr Ford was convicted alongside his co-defendants, Paul Maxwell and Daniel Mansell, following a West Yorkshire Police investigation known as “Operation Yew II”.

The convictions of all three defendants stemmed primarily from evidence given by a resident informant with West Yorkshire Police who was the key prosecution witness at trial.

During review, the CCRC obtained fresh evidence indicating that this witness (and members of his family) had been afforded a range of improper and undisclosed benefits.

The CCRC considered that these benefits may have acted as an inducement to the witness to give evidence.

The CCRC concluded that the nature of the benefits, and their non-disclosure, could have been used to support an application to stay the proceedings as an abuse of process.

This could have affected the outcome of the trial in relation to several of the counts.

The CCRC referred the convictions in November 2008.

The Court of Appeal quashed the disputed convictions in July 2009 and substituted a total sentence of 11 years’ imprisonment for the remaining offences which Mr Ford had admitted to.