Millionaire’s daughter Laura Johnson faces jail after conviction for driving looters on late-night crime spree at height of London riots

April 5th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

Laura Johnson, 20, drove looters across south London on seven-hour spree
Top student was pictured smiling in her car during the riots, despite telling court she was scared of group
Revved engine as police tried to arrest her at 2am
She is due to be sentenced on May 3

By
Eddie Wrenn

PUBLISHED:

06:33 EST, 5 April 2012

|

UPDATED:

08:17 EST, 5 April 2012

Conviction: Millionaire's daughter Laura Johnson leaving court last week

Conviction: Millionaire’s daughter Laura Johnson leaving court last week

A millionaire’s daughter has today been convicted of driving looters on a late-night crime spree at the height of last summer’s London riots.

Laura Johnson, 20, chauffeured the group through London on August 8 last year, and claimed she was too scared to say ‘no’ to the group, which included her convicted crack cocaine dealer boyfriend.

But today a jury at Inner London Crown
Court found her guilty of burgling a Comet store after hearing she was a
‘willing participant’ who even smiled in a CCTV picture taken as she
sat behind the wheel of her black Smartcar as chaos erupted around her.

As they cruised around the capital, her passengers leapt from the car clad in hooded tops, bandanas and balaclavas before stashing the vehicle with stolen goods.

The University of Exeter
undergraduate, from Orpington, south east London, was convicted today of
one count of burglary but cleared of a second count of burglary.

Johnson was also convicted of handling stolen goods – a TV looted from a branch of Currys – but cleared of a burglary charge involving the theft of cigarettes and drink from a BP garage.

She was also acquitted of handling these items.

Johnson showed no reaction as the verdicts were returned.

She was joined in the dock by a 17-year-old boy who cannot be named for legal reasons.

Judge Patricia Lees told the pair that they would be sentenced on May 3.

The judge said: ‘You have both been convicted of serious offences.

‘These are aggravated by the fact that they were conducted in the timeframe of serious civil unrest in London last summer.

‘This spree of burglaries and handling stolen goods which you both were willing participants in will attract in my mind the likelihood of an immediate custodial sentence.’

‘This spree of burglaries …will attract in my mind the likelihood of an immediate custodial sentence’

The pair were both convicted by the
jury of eight men and four women of stealing electrical goods from a
Comet store at the Greenwich Retail Park between August 7 and 10 as
rioters brought chaos to the capital.

But they were cleared of stealing a
television from a Currys shop at Stonelake Retail Park in south east
London between the same dates.

The unnamed teenager has previously admitted burglary by stealing alcohol and cigarettes from a BP garage in Charlton.

Scroll down for video of Laura Johnson leaving court

Not much to smile about: Johnson's mother Lindsay, right, who has been in court every day with her husband Robert, left, sobbed as she listened to statements of her daughter

Johnson’s mother and father, Lindsay and Robert, have attended the trial each day

The jury has heard that Johnson set
out early in the evening to deliver a phone charger to her friend,
Emmanuel Okubote, 20, a convicted crack cocaine dealer and thief,
otherwise known as T-Man.

When she arrived at their meeting
point in Catford, south London, he jumped into the passenger seat while
others climbed into the back of the car, prosecutors said.

Johnson told detectives she was
instructed to drive from one place to another late at night and into the
early hours of the morning.

When she stopped, her passengers – most of whom she claimed never to have met before – would embark on a looting mission.

The court heard that Johnson, who
previously tried to kill herself, began a close friendship with Okubote
during the summer after being introduced to him by a friend she met
while a mental health unit outpatient.

She told the court she was ordered to act as his driver on August 8 and was too frightened to flee.

Asked why she had not refused to
drive that night, she told police: ‘I didn’t get the impression they
were the sort of people you say no to… I suppose there’s a fear of
them, there’s a general knowledge that these are just not the kind of
people who you don’t go along with, especially when they are sat in your
car and have an idea of your family or registration plate.’

Grand: Prosecutor Sandy Canavan told the court Johnson had gone to a grammar school, had a nice background, was an Exeter University student and lives in this house in sunny Orpington, Kent

The court heard straight-A student
Johnson was one of hundreds of teenagers who scurried like ‘wild rats’
around a retail park in the early hours of August 9.

A witness, who took the photo of her
grinning in her car, claimed he saw the 19-year-old loading a
flat-screen TV into the boot of her car as her accomplices ran back and
forth with stolen goods.

She was captured on CCTV buying petrol so they could carry on their seven-hour looting spree.

When she was arrested at 2am in
Greenwich, police found her car piled up with booze, cigarettes and
three LCD TVs nicked from a Comet and a BP garage.

She then tried to rev her engine as police moved in to handcuff her.

The former prefect, who attended two
of the best state schools in the country before going to Exeter
University where she was on course to get a high 2:1 degree in English
Literature and Italian, claimed she had gone to meet Okubote that night
to drop him off a phone charger.

She said she was ‘terrified’ when he got in and ordered her abruptly to ‘drive.’

The jury heard she had two chances to escape but didn’t as she feared she would be stabbed.

Johnson, who lives in a £1million
country pile complete with extensive grounds and tennis courts in
Orpington, Kent, admitted lying to police in interview as she was scared
of the repercussions if she told the truth.

Prosecutor Sandy Canavan said it was
because she wanted to protect ‘bad boy’ Okubote – a convicted robber and
crack dealer – who she had ‘fallen for hard’ after meeting through a
friend during a spell at a mental health hospital last April.

Okubote is currently in Feltham Young
Offenders Institution after being recalled to prison for breaching his
licence in relation to a 30-month conviction for drug dealing.

Carnage: Johnson is accused of chauffeuring Okubote and his friends for seven hours as they embarked on a looting rampage in the London riots

The 20-year-old, who has previous
convictions for burglary, theft, assault and possessing an imitation
firearm, was arrested and charged with kidnap last August after a man
accused him of throwing bleach in his face. But by the trial in January
the charges had been dropped and a formal not guilty verdict was
entered.

He is now due to be questioned by police over his involvement in the riots.

Despite coming from wildly different
backgrounds the court heard Johnson, now 20, became sucked into an
‘exciting new world’ began getting drunk, smoking cannabis and listening
to violent gangster rap with Okubote.

The grammar school girl told jurors
she suffered a ‘complete breakdown’ after a break-up with her ex
boyfriend.

She was also on anti-depressants after attempting suicide seven times and claimed she was acting under duress that night.

Johnson, who wore glasses and no make up, every day of her three-week trial, is now facing up to 10 years in jail.

Her 17-year-old co-defendant, who
cannot be named for legal reasons, was also found guilty of burgling a
Comet store. He had earlier pleaded guilty to burgling a BP garage.

The jury cleared both of them of
burgling a Curry’s store. They are still deliberating on whether Johnson
is guilty of the BP garage burglary and if the pair are guilty of
handling stolen goods.

Former high-flying pupil Johnson
attended Newstead Wood School in Bromley, Kent and St Olave’s Grammar
School in Orpington, Kent – the fourth-best performing state school in
the country – where she gained A*s in French, English literature,
classical civilisation and geography at A-level.

Her parents Robert and Lindsay, who
have attended each day of the trial, run marketing firm Avongate and her
father also has directorships in several companies and was a director
in a company that took over the Daily Sport and Sunday Sport newspapers
in 2007.