EARL SUPPLIED COCAINE TO 'SHEIKH', JURY TOLD.

A CONSERVATIVE peer supplied cocaine to a fake Arab sheikh after being
entertained at London's Savoy Hotel, a court heard.

But the sumptuous surroundings, champagne and his host's flowing robes were
part of a ploy to expose the Earl of Hardwicke as "capable" of drug-dealing.

An undercover journalist secretly videoed the 28-year-old aristocrat and his
partner, it was claimed.

After a packet of cocaine had been couriered to the five-star hotel,
Hardwicke was allegedly heard to say, "Come on, bring on the charlie, I want
a big fat line. I am going to have the biggest line I have ever had in my
life and then be sick."

Both men snorted some of the powder through a rolled-up 5 pound note,
London's Blackfriars Crown Court was told.

A day later, claimed Martin Hicks, prosecuting, the peer took the man he
believed to be Sheikh Mohammed, and one of his make-believe aides, on a tour
of the House of Lords before meeting them in a restaurant to hand over a
second packet.

The earl, Joseph Philip Hardwicke, of Barons Court, west London, denied
being concerned in the supply of 2.44g of cocaine to News of the World
investigator Mazher Mahmood, on September 2 last year.

He also denied supplying 1.49 grams of the drug the following day.

Stefan Thwaites, 29, of Tooting, south London, pleads not guilty to
supplying the 2.44 grams.

The case continues.