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Authors: Bernard O'Mahoney
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Nathan and Thomkins to the mix caused further resentment. Tucker’s doormen had their own people who they were earning from. I didn’t know they had dealers and thought I was being helpful.
Shortly after Tucker’s birthday party, Steve and Thomkins began working at Club UK in Wandsworth, where Tucker ran the security. (Their position had been discussed at Tucker’s birthday party.) For the exclusive right to sell drugs in there, they paid Tucker £1,000 per weekend. On average, their return for Friday and Saturday nights was £12,000.
On Christmas Eve 1993, the firm celebrated in style. My brother, Michael, and his wife, Carol, came to a party we were attending in the West End. It was held at one of the most exclusive clubs in the UK at the time. There were long queues of people outside, which we ignored as a matter of course. These events where the firm got together were extraordinary. Because of our connections with door teams, nobody paid to get in anywhere, or for drinks or drugs. In some places, huge bags of cocaine, Special K and Ecstasy were made available to the firm and their associates.
When you looked around the dark room, you were surrounded by 40 or more friends, all ‘faces’. The music was so loud it lifted you; you were all one – we had total control. Those in the firm created an atmosphere that demanded respect from other villains. Straight people hardly noticed. On the surface, everyone was friendly, but there was this feeling of power and evil. Tucker felt it, too. Often he would look across a club and smile knowingly. Looking back, we revelled in the atmosphere we created wherever we went. We were living like kings but behaving like animals.
It was a memorable Christmas for me. After the party, we went back to Steve and Nathan’s flat in Denmark Court in Surrey Quays, an exclusive development in the south London Docklands. Strewn across the floor, spilling out of a carrier bag, lay more than £20,000, the proceeds of that weekend’s drug dealing. They earned so much money, they didn’t know how to spend it or where to put it. Unfortunately for Steve and Nathan, it was to be their last lucrative Christmas: their drug-dealing operation was about to come to an abrupt halt.
In March 1994, 20-year-old Kevin Jones collapsed and died in Club UK after taking Ecstasy he had purchased there. It didn’t take long before the names of Steve, Nathan and Thomkins were given to police as possible suppliers of the drug that killed Kevin. Instead of raiding their homes and arresting them, the police mounted a surveillance operation in the hope that they could arrest and convict those at the top end of the drug chain. On 6 May 1994, the police pounced and found 1,500 Ecstasy pills in a car parked beneath Steve and Nathan’s flat. The car was not registered to either man. Police checks revealed it had, in fact, been reported stolen in Bristol some weeks earlier.
At the same time as the police swooped in London, Dave Thomkins was arrested at his home in Bath. Steve and Nathan were placed under arrest and refused bail, while Thomkins was interviewed and granted bail pending further inquiries. Nathan’s girlfriend, an Asian princess named Yasmin, and Steve’s girlfriend, a stunning Swede named Ulrika, were also arrested. They told me later that they had refused to answer police questions and so had been granted bail pending further inquiries.
As soon as Dave Thomkins was released, he rang and told me what had happened. I said I would organise a solicitor for Steven and Nathan and that we should meet up for their appearance at Tower Bridge Magistrates’ Court. Yasmin and Ulrika also attended the hearing. Steve and Nathan were granted bail on the condition they give a £20,000 surety. They were told they would have to remain in custody until it was paid.
When I told Tucker about the arrests, he began shouting and screaming. He was worried that Steve and Nathan were going to grass on him for taking rent. I
Shortly after Tucker’s birthday party, Steve and Thomkins began working at Club UK in Wandsworth, where Tucker ran the security. (Their position had been discussed at Tucker’s birthday party.) For the exclusive right to sell drugs in there, they paid Tucker £1,000 per weekend. On average, their return for Friday and Saturday nights was £12,000.
On Christmas Eve 1993, the firm celebrated in style. My brother, Michael, and his wife, Carol, came to a party we were attending in the West End. It was held at one of the most exclusive clubs in the UK at the time. There were long queues of people outside, which we ignored as a matter of course. These events where the firm got together were extraordinary. Because of our connections with door teams, nobody paid to get in anywhere, or for drinks or drugs. In some places, huge bags of cocaine, Special K and Ecstasy were made available to the firm and their associates.
When you looked around the dark room, you were surrounded by 40 or more friends, all ‘faces’. The music was so loud it lifted you; you were all one – we had total control. Those in the firm created an atmosphere that demanded respect from other villains. Straight people hardly noticed. On the surface, everyone was friendly, but there was this feeling of power and evil. Tucker felt it, too. Often he would look across a club and smile knowingly. Looking back, we revelled in the atmosphere we created wherever we went. We were living like kings but behaving like animals.
It was a memorable Christmas for me. After the party, we went back to Steve and Nathan’s flat in Denmark Court in Surrey Quays, an exclusive development in the south London Docklands. Strewn across the floor, spilling out of a carrier bag, lay more than £20,000, the proceeds of that weekend’s drug dealing. They earned so much money, they didn’t know how to spend it or where to put it. Unfortunately for Steve and Nathan, it was to be their last lucrative Christmas: their drug-dealing operation was about to come to an abrupt halt.
In March 1994, 20-year-old Kevin Jones collapsed and died in Club UK after taking Ecstasy he had purchased there. It didn’t take long before the names of Steve, Nathan and Thomkins were given to police as possible suppliers of the drug that killed Kevin. Instead of raiding their homes and arresting them, the police mounted a surveillance operation in the hope that they could arrest and convict those at the top end of the drug chain. On 6 May 1994, the police pounced and found 1,500 Ecstasy pills in a car parked beneath Steve and Nathan’s flat. The car was not registered to either man. Police checks revealed it had, in fact, been reported stolen in Bristol some weeks earlier.
At the same time as the police swooped in London, Dave Thomkins was arrested at his home in Bath. Steve and Nathan were placed under arrest and refused bail, while Thomkins was interviewed and granted bail pending further inquiries. Nathan’s girlfriend, an Asian princess named Yasmin, and Steve’s girlfriend, a stunning Swede named Ulrika, were also arrested. They told me later that they had refused to answer police questions and so had been granted bail pending further inquiries.
As soon as Dave Thomkins was released, he rang and told me what had happened. I said I would organise a solicitor for Steven and Nathan and that we should meet up for their appearance at Tower Bridge Magistrates’ Court. Yasmin and Ulrika also attended the hearing. Steve and Nathan were granted bail on the condition they give a £20,000 surety. They were told they would have to remain in custody until it was paid.
When I told Tucker about the arrests, he began shouting and screaming. He was worried that Steve and Nathan were going to grass on him for taking rent. I
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