TWO Liverpool criminals facing a long stretch behind bars secured a large reduction in their sentences by providing false information to the authorities, a court heard today.

John Haase and his nephew Paul Bennett, who were the British end of an international drug smuggling operation, gave information about firearms and ammunition which led to a number of seizures, London’s Southwark Crown Court was told.

Gibson Grenfell QC, prosecuting, said when the case went to court in August 1995 they were sentenced to 18 years.

But the trial judge wrote to the then home secretary Michael Howard inviting the exercise of the Royal Prerogative of Mercy, and suggesting an appropriate sentence would be five years.

The Royal Prerogative was exercised and as a result both men were released in July 1996.

Mr Grenfell said: "The prosecution case is that these firearms were procured and laid down on behalf of, and at the direction of, Haase and Bennett to allow them to represent to the authorities, wholly falsely, that in relation to those firearms they were providing genuine intelligence about other criminals.

"Their purpose in so doing was to obtain undeserved but substantial credit for such intelligence when they came to be sentenced."

Haase, 59, of no fixed address, Bennett, 44, whose address is unknown, Haase’s wife Deborah, 37, of Teynham Avenue, Knowsley, Merseyside and Sharon Knowles, 36, of Wadeson Road, Anfield, all deny conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Deborah Haase also denies possession of firearms and ammunition without authority.

Mr Grenfell said the men were arrested in July 1993 by Regional Crime Squad officers in Liverpool following a major H M Customs and Excise investigation into an international drug trafficking operation.

The court was told Haase and Bennett were in effect the British end of an international drug smuggling operation involving Class A drugs and a Turkish crime syndicate.

He said: "Following their arrest it seems both men realised that the evidence against them was strong and that they would have to plead guilty.

"They decided to make an arrangement with H M Customs whereby they would provide information about the criminal activities of others in the expectation that in what is known as a text, a document setting out their assistance, would be provided to the sentencing judge for the purposes of securing reduced sentences for each of them."

Both were formally registered as informants and between October 1993 and August 1995 they provided information to a Customs officer called Paul Cook in respect of purported criminal activity.