Welcome to the official website for the Ali-G trial. This website has been created by Evolution Event Promotions Limited a co-defendant alongside Thomas Sinclair, now labeled by the national press as the Ali-G Fraudster. The pair were prosecuted by Pembrokeshire County Council for allegedly knowingly advertising that Ali-G, real name, Sacha Baron Cohen was to attend the Haverfordwest Carnival in Wales in July 2002.

Ali G: Defendants though he would be at carnival

Thomas Sinclair, at the time the Managing Director of Evolution Event Promotions Limited fell out of favour with the local authorities in Pembrokeshire after he informed them of his intention to apply for a drinks licence and public entertainment licence for what has been dubbed as Pembrokeshire s most controversial nightclub, Chequers in Tenby.

The club, which used to be one of Wales busiest night clubs was closed down in 1997 when the then licensee, Mr. Dafydd Gittins was prosecuted for knowingly allowing drugs to be used and sold on the premises. He was convicted at Swansea Crown Court of drugs offences and sentenced to a term in prison. At his appeal at the Court of Appeal in London in February 2000, his conviction was overturned. The appeal judges said in their summing up that the Police at best exaggerated and at worst lied in order to secure a conviction against Mr. Gittins.

Dynamite: Gittins wrote book about

corruption against Chequers

This case highlighted the lengths that the authorities would go to in Pembrokeshire to keep Chequers closed, and since Thomas Sinclair let it slip that he intended to apply for licenses for the same club, things went terribly wrong for him and Evolution Event Promotions Limited, the events promotion company he founded.

The Evolution Experience started in August 2000 at the Kings Function Centre in Milford Haven. The popular dance music night, described in Mixmag as the biggest and loudest night in Wales, went from strength to strength, and after nearly two years at the Kings Function Centre, Thomas Sinclair and his 30 strong team of loyal volunteers were seeking a bigger venue. The chosen venue was the Park House Exhibition Centre in Haverfordwest, and on 30^th March 2002 the first event was held there. Flying in dance producers PPK from Russia and Ibiza dance pioneer, Alex P. The event was an instant success and the Park House Exhibition Centre was packed with over 1,800 people attending the event. The next event took place on 11^th May 2002 and the guest stars were Dave Pearce, Lisa Lashes and DJ Slipmatt. Dave Pearce, the UKs most popular radio DJ was flown in from the Isle of White by private plane and landed at Haverfordwest airport. Despite the big line up the turnout at the event was only 1,200 people. A bit of a disappointment but ticket sales were hit by the closure of the ITV Digital call centre at Pembroke Dock, which employed almost 1,000 young people in the Pembrokeshire area. Due to the worry about the financial viability of large scale dance music events in Pembrokeshire following the collapse of ITV Digital, Evolution Event Promotions Limited under the direction of Thomas Sinclair and its major shareholders agreed to promote the next event, due to be held on 20^th July 2002, with the help of Swansea based promotions and magazine publishing company R U Sorted Limited.

However, after the event on 11^th May 2002, Pembrokeshire County Council and Dyfed Powys Police had received a Notice of Intent from Thomas Sinclair that he intended to apply for a Public Entertainment Licence and Drinks Licence for the controversial Chequers nightclub in Tenby. Thomas Sinclairs reasons for applying for the licenses that he felt that following the collapse of ITV Digital Pembrokeshire would be hard pressed to support regular large-scale music events.

The licensing officer for Dyfed Powys Police is Tony Davies, based at Pembroke Dock Police Station. A very nice gentleman if you are on his side but a nasty piece of work if you decide you want to press on with something that he does not agree with. For reasons that we are yet to ascertain Tony Davies was completely against the opening of Chequers nightclub. It is suspected that the proximity of the club to his home and the fact that he was allegedly assaulted at the premises in the early 1990s may have contributed to his obvious hate of the Penally nightspot.

This website does not concentrate on the licensing application for Chequers nightspot - that will be online elsewhere in the near future. However, the above has hopefully given you some background to the Ali-G trial. The point is that Pembrokeshire County Council and Dyfed Powys Police (who work together on licensing matters to form the Pembrokeshire Licensing Team) desperately needed to secure a conviction against Thomas Sinclair in order to prevent him from obtaining a Public Entertainment Licence (on appeal to the Crown Court) for Chequers nightclub in Penally, Tenby. That conviction was to come in the way of Making a False Statement, and this Website sets out the reasons why that conviction is not safe.

Evolution Event Promotions Limited and Thomas Sinclair accept that Ali-G was never going to be at the Haverfordwest Carnival or at the Evolution Experience We are Two Birthday event at the Park House Exhibition Centre. But at the time of advertising the events, Ali-G had been legitimately booked, it was assumed, through R U Sorted Limited in Swansea. Initially, Pembrokeshire County Council offered a caution to both the defendants. If accepted, there would have been no court case at all, but both parties would have made an admission of guilt. This alone would have been enough to use against Thomas Sinclair in his application for a Public Entertainment Licence for Chequers nightclub in Penally, Tenby. Despite the attraction of accepting the caution in order that legal proceedings could be avoided, this would have meant a false admission of guilt on behalf of both of the defendants, and furthermore would have lead to the police or Licensing Department of Pembrokeshire County Council using the caution for a reason to argue for the refusal of the licence for Chequers Country Club at the Crown Court Appeal. The original licence hearing was on 17^th December 2002 at County Hall in Haverfordwest, but the refusal was appealed to Swansea Crown Court. After the conviction against Thomas Sinclair was obtained, the appeal was dropped. Licensing solicitor John Morse based in Swansea felt that it was unlikely that a licence for Chequers could be obtained after the guilty verdict was announced.

However, many have been concerned at the way the case ended up in Crown Court. As any legal expert knows, all cases start off at the Magistrates Court, but how did the Ali-G case end up in the Crown?

There are two ways a case could end up in the Crown Court, either the defendants could elect for trial by jury in crown court, or the magistrates could refuse jurisdiction; either because the punishment they could hand down is too lenient in their view to deal with the seriousness of the offence in question, or the case is too complex or beyond the scope of the magistrates. Pembrokeshire County Councils legal advocate, Claire Incledon, insisted that the case be heard in the Crown Court. She argued that Evolution Event Promotions Limited had not collected its summons, sent by recorded delivery, and therefore the complexities caused by this meant that the case could not be dealt with by the magistrates. Claire Incledon said that it was beyond the scope of the magistrates and that this was a test case, in effect, because no complaint had been received from any person in relation to the non-appearance of Ali-G at Haverfordwest Carnival. Claire Incledon said that the Crown Court would have to sort out that letters had not been signed for and the implications that this would have on the case. In fact, Evolution Event Promotions Limited had in fact signed for all its post. What was said by Claire Incledon in the Magistrates Court was false. The company secretary of Evolution Event Promotions Limited made a complaint against Claire Incledon, which is still ongoing. A statement has been obtained from Milford Haven sorting office in relation to the actions of a member of the Trading Standards team at the sorting office. (See strange goings on at Milford Haven sorting office)

l          Thomas Sinclair is currently studying Law and Japanese LLB (Hons) at Keele University and hopes to become a barrister specialising in Licensing and Environmental Matters.

l          He has no criminal convictions, other than motoring related matters, except for the conviction for making a false statement about Ali-G which he now hopes to appeal.

l          Thomas Sinclair and Evolution Event Promotions Limited could have accepted a caution for the Ali-G matter but decided not to because that would have meant a false admission of guilt.

l          In 1998 Thomas Sinclair tried to organize a pop festival called Gigawatt 98 but was stopped after the police objected about the possibility for public disorder.

l          In 2002 Thomas Sinclair applied for a Public Entertainment Licence for Chequers. The council objected to the licence on the following grounds: Thomas Sinclair is not a fit and proper person to hold a public entertainment licence because he has the propensity to unfairly criticise, through a number of public forums, the Authority in its licensing function.

l          Thomas Sinclair was bankrupted by Newsquest PLC the owners of the Milford Mercury and Western Telegraph over approximately three thousand pounds. A solicitor acting on behalf of Newsquest burst into the licensing hearing for Chequers and took over the microphone. He said, without permission of the Chairman of the quasi-judicial licensing committee, that Thomas Sinclair was going to be bankrupted the following day. The police had attended at the bankruptcy court... why? Why did the police allow the solicitor acting for Newsquest take the microphone? The police employee involved was licensing officer Tony Davies.

l          Thomas Sinclair is has acted as a licensing consultant for the Music Live festival and it was a condition of the festival licence that Thomas Sinclair attend the site. This was a decision of the licensing committee, although two months later, Thomas Sinclair was unfit to hold a licence.

l          Thomas Sinclair was one of the first in Wales to hold a national qualification in Entertainment Licensing with the British Institute of Innkeepers. Thomas Sinclair also holds a BII Level 2 Qualification and has completed the Planed Festivals and events training programme.

Was it really that unrealistic that Ali-G was coming to Wales. Thomas Sinclair didn't think so... read on.

• ALI G star Sacha Baron Cohen has strong Welsh links.
• His father is from Pontypridd, and his mother owns Calders store in Cardiff.
• He shot to fame with the character Ali G on The 11 O'Clock Show on Channel 4, and then with Da Ali G Show.
• His character became famous for interviewing unsuspecting celebrities, who reacted to his unconventional questions with hilarious results.
• John Humphrys, Posh and Becks and Mohammed al Fayed all appeared on the show, and Cohen also took the series to America, with Ali G in the USAiii, where he interviewed the great and the good of American life.
• Cohen was due to marry former Home and Away star Isla Fisher last year, but the wedding was postponed, reportedly to give Fisher more time to study in Israel before converting to Cohen's religion, Judaism.
• The couple originally planned to marry in Isla's home town of Perth, Australia, just before Christmas 2002.
• They narrowly escaped injury earlier this year when a stray bullet missed them by inches as they were sleeping in the David Intercontinental Hotel in Tel Aviv.
• Two men in the room next door to them committed suicide in the hotel in the Israeli capital and one of the bullets tore through the wall of their room.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS A TEMPORARY SITE AND IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION

A new flash website designed by friends and supporters will be updated shortly, on completion so please check back.

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