Businessman jailed for bomb plot against two lawyers over £1.4million legal row
A businessman who orchestrated a bomb plot against two lawyers for the National Crime Agency whilst being pursued for £1.4million in assets has been jailed.
Jonathan Nuttall will spend more than eight years behind bars over the failed plot hatched with his driver, Michael Sode, and ex-marine Michael Broddle. The three conspired to plant two devices in London's legal district as Nuttall feared losing his stately home through the probe.
The three planned to target NCA lawyers Andrew Sutcliffe KC and Anne Jeavons, culminating in Broddle planting the devices at Gray's Inn. Nuttall was convicted following a four-month trial at the Old Bailey in which it was heard he used driver Sode, 59, as a "middle man" to recruit former Royal Marine Broddle.
Broddle, 47, was taken on to research the lawyers, and was also accused of roping his sons into the plot. Nuttall and Sode were found guilty of two charges of conspiring with Broddle to place an article with intent on or before September 14, 2021.
Jonathan Nuttall was jailed for more than eight years at the Old Bailey (PA)One "potentially-viable" device was left near a bench and was found to contain a smoke grenade, while another - which was "non-viable" - was left near Mr Sutcliffe's office with the intent to cause "maximum distress". The second device, the jury heard, came with a letter addressing Mr Sutcliffe by his old Army nickname "Sooty" and containing false allegations.
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Previous threats targeting Mr Sutcliffe's family were attempted, jurors heard, although were ultimately not sent. Nuttall paid Broddle £7,000 through Sode for his part.
Police arrested Broddle two days afterwards, with officers raiding his home and seizing fireworks, gas canisters, a hat and wig and rubber face masks. Both Nuttall and Sode were also found to have hidden or discarded of phones linking them to the plot.
The three were also convicted of conspiring to transfer criminal property, while Nuttall was also convicted of two charges of failing to comply with a notice and Sode was found guilty of one similar charge. During Friday's sentencing, Mr Sutcliffe expressed his "alarm and distress" at being targeted in a "Mafioso-type way".
Devices were planted in the hear of London's legal district at Gray's Inn (PA)Mrs Jeavons meanwhile in her victim impact statement said she felt "angry and shaken" that Nuttall had honed his anger into a "cruel, cowardly and entirely misplaced" attack upon herself and Mr Sutcliffe, describing Nuttall's actions as "malicious and vindictive".
Jailing Nuttall for eight years and two months, judge Simon Mayo KC, said: "In my judgment this was a malicious, bold and extremely serious attack on those involved in the administration of justice. Your agreed purpose was to undermine the administration of justice.
"I am entirely satisfied that you intended serious harm to be occasioned by your agreed course of conduct. It is patently clear that the leaving of those devices would inevitably cause widespread alarm and disruption."
Mrs Jeavons had told jurors about the history of the financial wrangle with Nuttall, although his wife, Amanda Nuttall, who had won a lottery jackpot of £2.4 million, was named on the NCA legal papers. She said payments to settle the £1.4 million order had been rejected by the NCA as possibly coming from the proceeds of crime, putting the Nuttalls' mansion in Hampshire at risk, and that Nuttall was unhappy about that, making it clear "it would be a red line if the NCA sought to recover his home".
Driver Michael Sode helped Nuttall recruit Broddle (PA)Jurors heard that Nuttall also had a flat near Sloane Square in West London and a chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce but neither was owned by him. The legal proceedings started in 2011 and the original settlement dated back to 2019 and remains unresolved.
The NCA had claimed that assets held in the name of Mrs Nuttall and the associated corporate entities were funded from the proceeds of an international money-laundering network and mortgage fraud. Nuttall's defence lawyer stressed that the settlement was made on a "commercial basis without admitting the NCA was right about anything".
Previously, Nuttall had been handed a 12-month conditional discharge for failing to pay a bond after his business was reclassified as high risk. Nuttall blamed his brother, Philip, for some of his financial woes and denied having anything to do with a plot. Most of the lottery win went to pay off his brother's gambling debts, he said.
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He denied concealing his mobile phone from police, saying he was using the bathroom when officers arrived at his home, Embley Manor. Sode, who denied wrongdoing and claimed he was involved in recovering debts from clients of an escort agency business, was sentenced to six years and six months' imprisonment.
Broddle, who took responsibility for planting the devices but declined to name who he was working for, was jailed for seven years. Broddle's sons were previously cleared of wrongdoing.
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