THE 10th Earl of Hardwicke and a former business partner escaped jail
yesterday, in spite of being convicted of dealing cocaine, after the jury
condemned the undercover journalism used to entrap them.

The two men were given suspended sentences after the jury took the highly
unusual step of issuing a statement that spoke of the "extreme provocation"
they suffered.

The six-day trial at Blackfriars Crown Court, London, was told that
Hardwicke, 28, the youngest hereditary peer to take a seat in the House of
Lords, allegedly inhaled "lines" of cocaine in front of a secret camera set
up by undercover journalists at The Savoy.

The next day the earl, who first sat on the Tory benches six years ago,
handed a "wrap" of cocaine to Mahzer Mahmood, investigations editor of the
News Of The World, who was posing as a wealthy Arab businessman.

Hardwicke was found guilty of being concerned in the supply of 2.44g of
cocaine to Mr Mahmood on September 2 last year and of supplying 1.49g of the
class A drug to the journalist the following day. Stefan Thwaites, 29, who
used to help Hardwicke to run a South London scooter franchise, was found
guilty of supplying 2.44g.

The jurors then declared that had the law been different, they would have
cleared the two defendants. Their note, read out by Judge Timothy Pontius,
stated: "The jury would like to say the circumstances surrounding this case
have made it very difficult for us to reach a decision.

"Had we been allowed to take the extreme provocation into account we would
undoubtedly have reached a different verdict."

The judge made it clear that while prison sentences would appear inevitable,
he felt justified in suspending them. "In all the circumstances and given .
. . the terms of the jury's carefully considered note, which I read as a
plea to me to exercise particular mercy in this case, I have concluded with
some degree of hesitation that the circumstances are, by virtue of the
jury's clearly stated views, so exceptional that I am justified in
suspending the operation of the prison sentences."

As a result, Hardwicke was given two years suspended for two years, and
Thwaites 15 months suspended for a similar time. The judge said that if it
had not been for the jury's plea and the manner in which the men were
entrapped, they would have been facing up to four years in jail. Hardwicke
was also ordered to pay pounds 2,000 towards prosecution costs, as well as
pounds 320 to meet a confiscation order. Similar orders of pounds 1,400 and
pounds 200 were made against Thwaites.

Earlier in his sentencing remarks the judge told the pair: "I am more used,
when sentencing defendants who have been convicted of the supply of illegal
drugs, of seeing in the dock men and women of deprived backgrounds and
disadvantaged circumstances.

"They are often irretrievably addicted themselves, and who have involved
themselves in the peddling of drugs in order to finance their own habit. In
contrast, however, both of you were living affluent lives, enjoying the
advantages and trappings of comparative wealth, business success and social
standing, and in your case Lord Hardwicke, the privilege of membership of
the legislature. Neither of you were driven in any way by need, poverty or
deprivation."

The judge said that it was right he should take into account the fact that
Hardwicke, of Barons Court, West London, had been previously cautioned for
possessing small amounts of heroin and crack cocaine. It was equally
important he take on board as a mitigating factor how the men ended up in
court. "Were it not for that elaborate sting you would not, I accept, have
committed these particular offences of supplying these particular people on
these particular days."

Last night, a spokesman for the News of the World said that the paper had
"no hesitation in investigating and exposing ruthless and habitual drug
peddlers who break the law with arrogant impunity, threaten society and
bring misery and death to their victims".