A leading member of the garage music collective So Solid Crew was jailed yesterday for four years after being found guilty of fleeing a suspected drugs deal with a loaded gun.
Jason Joab Phillips, 24, known to his fans as G-Man, ran from plain-clothes police officers in the West End of London after they tried to search him and another band member for drugs. He was accused of dumping the modified Brocock pistol on top of a bag of rubbish as he fled.
It took a four-man and eight-woman jury at Southwark crown court just 90 minutes to unanimously reject claims that the weapon was nothing to do with Phillips despite his DNA being discovered on the gun butt. The rapper, who has a nine-year criminal record involving 11 court appearances and 16 offences, showed no reaction as he stood in the dock and listened to the verdict at the end of a four-day trial.
He was found guilty of one count of possessing the prohibited weapon on November 14 last year and one of possessing the seven rounds it contained.
While none of his previous convictions was for violence, drugs were certainly involved.
Passing sentence, Judge James Wadsworth QC told him: "Quite apart from the work you do in the music world, you are in a position, from the way in which you have grown up in this town, to know the immense dangers that there are in having that sort of weapon, loaded and well capable of being used to kill, though I accept that was probably not your intention that night.
"I suspect you had it out of bravado and the thrill of having it, rather than the intention of using it. But the danger remains nonetheless. Had you thrown it away and it was found by someone other than the police, there is no knowing how that loaded gun may have been used. I can do nothing other than take a very serious view of this matter."
Earlier this week the jury heard how it was Shane Neil, the band member with Phillips, who had first aroused the concerns of police monitoring CCTV cameras. The jury was not told, however, that it was originally intended that he should stand trial as well. Benjamin Aina, prosecuting, said that officers suspected he was dealing in drugs in an area "well known" for the problem.
He said that police based in a CCTV room at the Trocadero centre in the West End had become suspicious of Neil and Phillips, who were wearing hooded tracksuits and standing near the Hippodrome nightclub at about 10.40pm on November 14 last year.
Phillips and Neil had been to the premiere of a PlayStation2 game before they were stopped near Leicester Square in central London.
A police officer told Phillips to "take your hands out of your pockets". Phillips was pacing back and forth. "He appeared nervous, agitated." Phillips repeatedly refused to remove his hands from his pockets before running off at speed, all the time "desperately" trying to take something out of his pocket, the court heard.
He went out of sight of the officers but a short time later, on being spotted, stopped and raised his hands in "surrender". Mr Aina said Phillips gave himself up only because he had managed to dump the gun.
Neil was later charged with offering to supply a controlled drug and possessing the gun on the basis that he allegedly knew Phillips was armed. At a magistrates court remand hearing last December the prosecution claimed Neil had told him to "get rid" of the weapon.
But earlier this month, Neil was cleared of both counts after the crown prosecution service decided to withdraw its case.
Phillips was also charged in connection with the discovery of 11 bullets at a council flat in south London. But he was cleared of these charges.
Yesterday, Phillips, who wrote the band's chart-topping single 21 Seconds, and is executive producer for the 35-strong collective, said "thank you" at court before going to the cells.
