EARL 'USED ROLLED UP 5 POUND NOTE TO SNORT COCAINE AT SAVOY'

THE 10th Earl of Hardwicke snorted cocaine through a rolled up pounds
5 note in a suite at the Savoy Hotel and supplied the drug to an
investigative reporter posing as an Arab sheikh, a jury was told yesterday.

Hardwicke, 28, the youngest hereditary peer to take a seat in the
House of Lords when he first sat on the Tory benches six years ago,
allegedly told his hosts: "We call it help. That's what we call coke
because we need it." After an evening of drinking and dining, he had
become impatient over the delayed arrival of the drug which he later
described as "industrial Sheffield" because of its strength,
Blackfriars Crown Court was told.

Martin Hicks, prosecuting, told the jury that Hardwicke said: "Come
on, bring on the Charlie. I want a big fat line. I am going to have
the biggest line I have had in my life and then be sick." Hardwicke,
of west London, who also showed the fake Arabs around the House of
Lords, and Stefan Thwaites, 29, his friend and business partner, of
Tooting, south London, deny supplying cocaine last September.

Mr Hicks said that the two had been "the recipients of an elaborate
deception" by undercover reporters from the News of the World posing
as Arab businessmen who recorded and videoed meetings at the Savoy and
at Bibendum, a Conran restaurant, where Hardwicke handed over a packet
of cocaine hidden under a copy of a newspaper in return for pounds
120.

The reporters' subterfuge was "designed to expose Hardwicke and
Thwaites as being capable of engaging in the criminal supply of
cocaine". Mr Hicks said the two were "lured by the prospect of
financial reward, tricked into believing they were in the company of
like minded people and entrapped, not into doing something they would
not otherwise have done, but what they wanted to do".

He told the jury that Hardwicke, charged as Joseph Philip Hardwicke,
inherited his title when he was three on the death of his grandfather.
In the Lords he sat on two committees, one to do with films and the
other with motorcycles.

Last year, when reform of the House of Lords was at the forefront of
public debate, Hardwicke - "sensitive to the issue" - said he thought
that young people gave the House a better image. Mr Hicks said
Thwaites described Hardwicke as "the biggest player. He is known as a
member of the House of Lords but he goes out to parties all night".

The court was told that the two friends went to the Savoy after being
approached at the Italian scooter franchise they owned by a man
claiming to represent wealthy Middle Eastern businessmen. At the time
the future for both "looked rosy" but what followed, said Mr Hicks,
"caused a tragic reversal of their prospects" and led to their court
appearance. Hardwicke was also suspended from the Tory whip.

The pair expected the Savoy meeting to be formal, but they were wined
and dined in the River Room by the bogus Arabs dressed in flowing
robes. Back in the suite, Mr Hicks said, the conversation turned to
drugs and girls and when the sheikh asked the peer if he liked girls,
Hardwicke replied: "I do, I like everything, unfortunately."

Mr Hicks said Thwaites offered the fake Arabs a number if they wanted
drugs and Hardwicke snapped his fingers and said "like this". When the
Arab asked directly: "Can you sort some?" Hardwicke replied: "We can
sort some." Thwaites made a number of calls on his mobile and the
drugs were delivered to him at the hotel that night, the jury heard.

When the Arab insisted on paying, Hardwicke allegedly took the money,
tucked it into Thwaites's pocket and said: "The next time is on us."
He said although they were being "progressively influenced by alcohol
each knew what they were saying and what was being said to them".

Mr Hicks told the court that when the drug arrived Hardwicke cleared a
table, made lines with his credit card and snorted the drug through a
rolled up pounds 5 note. He said the two men were exposed in the News
of the World and later interviewed by police.

The trial continues.