Tom Costelloe was jailed this week after being found guilty of tolerating ecstasy sales in the club where he was manager for 8 years, the Plymouth Dance Academy.
Assistant manager Justin Hayward was cleared by a jury while club owner/property entrepreneur Manoucehr Bahmanzadeh was also convicted, prompting harsh words from Plymouth Crown Court Judge Gilbert who told the jury he would have reached �exactly the same verdict’. The case could have serious implications for promoters throughout the UK, given the fact that prosecutors made no effort to link either Costello and Bahmanzadeh actively with drug dealing, instead proving simply that they’d failed to done enough to prevent dealers from operating in the club.
Starting his career at the beginning of the 90s, Costelloe became one of the biggest British house DJs of the era, holding a residency at London’s hugely influential Club UK, going on to pioneer Space’s terrace parties with Brandon Block and Alex P. Teaming up with Bahmanzadeh in 1998 (when Bahmanzadeh still owned Brighton’s Zap Club) the pair built the Dance Academy into one of England’s highest profile clubs before the police raided it in 2006 (Mixmag made it “club of the year” (west region) in 2004).
Writing on his MySpace page before the trial, the 37 year old father emphasized his continuing passion for clubbing, declaring �my life is all about music! I live breathe and sleep dance music.’ He also revealed his favourite film is Shawshank Redemption, the Hollywood prison movie about an innocent man framed and jailed for a crime he didn’t commit.
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