Sports promoter freed on appeal

10:21am Thursday 17th October 2002

BOXER Nigel Benn's former promoter has had his six-month jail sentence knocked out at the Old Bailey.

Ambrose Mendy, 48, from Draycot Road, Wanstead, walked free from the court on Friday after appealing against the sentence passed by the City of London Magistrates Court.

Mendy was arrested after using a stolen credit card in a branch of Books etc in Cheapside, central London. Staff alerted the police who followed his taxi, the court heard.

When officers caught up with the promoter they found the stolen American Express card in the back of the cab. He was sentenced to six months in prison last month.

At last week's appeal hearing the sentence was overturned and replaced by a 12-month community rehabilitation order.

Judge Brian Barker QC said: "We have given careful attention to the matters raised on your behalf.

"You are a man of considerable ability and you know you are. You have got a record you are ashamed of. We are prepared to allow your appeal."

Mendy, who was jailed twice in the 1990s for fraud, was also ordered to attend the Think First project designed to help persistent offenders address their problems.

Judge Barker added: "We hope you have the motivation to take advantage of it. If you go on like this you will have no life left. If you let us down, you let yourself down and your family down."

A grateful Mendy replied from the dock: "I will not let you down. Thank you very much."

The shrewd businessman with a taste for the high life reportedly bought his first Rolls Royce aged 19, rising to prominence in the 1980s as world middleweight boxing champion Nigel Benn's promoter.

Once dubbed Britain's version of Tyson promoter Don King, Mendy also brokered former England football captain Paul Ince's megabucks move from West Ham to Manchester United.

Since his release from jail in 1999, Mendy has completed two degree courses and is said to have helped organise Lomano Lua-Lua's transfer from Colchester United to Premiership giants Newcastle United.

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