Stephen Lawrence suspect Jamie Acourt to be freed from prison next month

A suspect in the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence will be freed from prison in a month despite failing to pay back any of the £90,000 he made from a £3 million drugs plot.

Jamie Acourt, who spent more than two years on the run in Spain under the alias Simon Alfonzo, will be released on Nov 3 after serving half of his nine-year sentence.

He told a judge that he had been offered a job with Precision Contractors, a construction firm run by his “friend and builder” Matthew Chapman, and will be supported on the outside by Terri Dean, his partner.

The 46-year-old was one of five men arrested over the murder of Lawrence, who was 18 when he was stabbed to death in Eltham, south-east London, on April 22 1993.

Two of the five, Gary Dobson and David Norris, were prosecuted and handed life sentences in 2012 after being found guilty of murder.

Norris was referred to the police for investigation last week after allegedly taking selfies in his cell at HMP Dartmoor and sending them to friends.

In Jan 2021, Acourt was ordered by a judge at Kingston Crown Court to pay back £90,000 in ill-gotten gains or face having another year added to his jail sentence.

His brother Neil Acourt, who was also arrested over Mr Lawrence’s murder, was jailed for six years over the same drugs plot, which saw some 750kg of cannabis resin, with an estimated street value of around £3 million, moved between London and South Shields, Tyne and Wear.

Jamie Acourt appeared at City of London Magistrates’ Court on Friday by video link from HMP Stocken in Rutland, where police asked District Judge Neeta Minhas to impose the default sentence over his failure to pay the confiscation order.

Pc David Bracken said: “Mr Acourt has not paid anything or shown any willingness to pay anything. Obviously, he’s going to be released soon and there has been no goodwill on his part.”

Acourt told the judge he will have served four-and-a-half years of his sentence next month and will spend the rest of the term on licence.

“I’m more than willing to pay. But obviously, with the cost of living and everything else, I can only earn what I can earn and I can only pay what I can pay,” he said.

Acourt said that his family have not paid any of the money “because they don’t have the funds”.

When asked how much he intends to pay a month, said: “Whatever I can pay. Once I’m out and worked out what I can pay – £50 a month, £100 a month, whatever I have got left after all the outgoings.”

The judge agreed that Acourt should be released from prison, but ordered him to pay back £500 a month or face the reactivation of his jail sentence, saying that the sums he suggested would not even cover the interest of £20 a day.

She said that he has until Jan 1 2023 to make the first payment.