14/12/04 - What Happened and When
Basildon Echo
MID 2003
Police set up a covert operation to follow Kim Webber's movements. Officers also plant a covert listening device inside his Mercedes and listen to conversations the businessman makes in his car.
OCTOBER 14, 2003
More than 100 police arrest Kim Webber and five others in dawn raids across south Essex as part of a major drugs investigation. Officers, some armed, swoop on his home in Leigh at 5am, at Basildon United's football Stadium, a farm house and outbuildings in North Benfleet, and Webber's second-hand car dealership in Thundersley.
OCTOBER 16, 2003
Webber appears before magistrates in Harlow, where police request his detention for another three days for further questioning.
OCTOBER 20, 2003
Webber re-appears before magistrates charged with conspiring to produce amphetamines and of supplying 47kg of cannabis resin. He is remanded in custody.
SEPTEMBER 9, 2004
Webber and co-defendants Raymond Marten, 55, and David Ferguson appear at Chelmsford Crown Court . charged with conspiring with persons unknown to supply 47kg of cannabis resin between June 25 and September 24, 2003. The start of the trial is delayed due to the unavailability of an undercover police officer witness.
SEPTEMBER 27, 2004
Webber, Ferguson and Marten's trial begins at Chelmsford Crown Court under the direction of Judge Charles Gratwicke. It is scheduled to last for one week. The court hears how the trio were watched by undercover police officers, moving packages containing the cannabis resin from Ferguson's vehicle into the boot of Webber's Mercedes car in the car park of a Rayleigh hotel. Webber later met Marten, from the Isle of Sheppey, and transferred the packages to the front passenger seat of Marten's van on the morning of September 23, 2003. Officers stopped Marten in the village of Aylesford, in Kent, later that day, recovering the cannabis from the cabin of his van. Defence counsel claiming the three men were dealing in nothing more sinister than fireworks.
SEPTEMBER 30, 2004
The jury at Chelmsford Crown Court returns to give the first of their three verdicts. Courier Ferguson, from Reading, Berkshire, is found guilty by a unanimous verdict. Moments later, Webber is found guilty of the same charge of conspiring with persons unknown to supply the cannabis.