By James Simons-
A man has been convicted of sending Lord Alan Sugar threatening anti-semitic letters.
Patrick Gomes, 70, sent three letters to one of Lord Sugar’s business premises in Loughton between October and December 2018.
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Each letter was addressed directly to the entrepreneur, and included abusive, threatening and offensive language. They were all deeply derogatory towards the Jewish faith.
On 19 March 2019, Gomes was arrested at his home in Lyttelton Road, Leyton, after his DNA and fingerprints were found on one of the letters.
There, officers found additional letters written by Gomes, all of which were discriminatory in nature.
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They also found the address the original letters were sent to listed in his address book.
Throughout the investigation, Gomes denied his involvement.
On Wednesday December 1, at Chelmsford Crown court, he was found guilty of religiously-aggravated harassment, putting those targeted in fear of violence.
After failing to appear at court, a warrant was issued for his arrest.
He was arrested the next day, Thursday December 2, and remanded in custody to await sentencing later this month.
Lord Sugar said: “I would like to pass on my sincere gratitude to the police for their assistance in this case.
“I have to be honest, I was reluctant to pass this matter on to the police as they are already stretched and have enough on their plates dealing with serious crimes.
“I would like to thank them sincerely for helping to shine a light on the fact that this type of behaviour is simply not acceptable and that racism or any form of discrimination is simply not acceptable.”
Investigating officer PC Marc Arnold, of Epping Forest’s Community Policing Team, said: “Nobody should ever be subjected to this level of abuse or fear physical violence because of their faith.
“I’m really pleased that justice has been rightly served.
“There is simply no excuse for any hate crime and if this happens to you or you witness this type of behaviour, please tell us – we will not tolerate racism or discrimination of any kind and neither should you.”
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