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11 two ex-Commanders, the highest- ranking British police officers ever to be convicted of corruption – be- ing sentenced to a total of 90 years in prison. Just as the 1973 police raids were due, Silver and Mifsud took off on an 'extended holiday' after be- ing tipped off. But the newspapers later obliged with an elaborate pre- tence by Scotland Yard of having the warrants withdrawn and given up on the case. The ruse led to the Syndicate members to return to London. Bernie Silver returned from France and was arrested while he was having dinner with his girlfriend at the Park Tower Hotel on 30 December 1973. One of the men who collected takings from the prostitutes was Big Frank's own brother Joseph Mifsud who "acted in a managerial role and was also a shareholder. From time to time, in his broth- er's absence, he also received this money collected from the girls." Two other Syndicate members Victor 'Bajzu' Micallef and Fred Brett faced charges of kidnapping another Maltese associate, Frank Dyer, suspecting him of having shopped the crime ring to the po- lice. Dyer originally had come to Lon- don in 1947 where he married a Soho prostitute and collected rent for the Syndicate. He was twice jailed for living on her immoral earnings and left the country for Malta in 1959 after a warrant was issued for his arrest for again living off immoral earnings. Dyer later returned in August 1973 to discuss the purchase of a Berwick Street property in Soho as the crime ring started selling off the properties af- ter the News of the World reports. But when the Syndicate suspected Dyer of having given the police a statement, they kidnapped him from a London pub, beat him up in a basement cellar and threatened him with a gun, and then offered him £20,000 to disappear so as not to turn up as a witness at the trial of the Syndicate. Silver would be sentenced to six years in prison before Mifsud got extradited from Switzerland to face the same charges. But he would later get his sentence quashed on appeal. Smithson murder trial In the UK, Big Frank was also tried and cleared of the 1956 mur- der of gangster Thomas 'Scarface' Smithson, 36, having denied or- dering the killing of the protection racketeer. Silver was convicted on 8 July, 1975 of the murder, sen- tenced to life imprisonment for murder and to ten years' impris- onment for conspiracy to mur- der, but later cleared on appeal. Mifsud's trial followed informa- tion on the murder given to police in the 1973 bust. Mifsud had a share in a gam- bling club run by Maltese national George Caruana, who, however, had to pay Smithson protec- tion money – five shillings in the pound. Caruana later closed the club and moved to the East End, but Smithson would not let him go. On the first occasion when he went to collect the money, Smith- son arrived with ten men armed with iron bars, and Caruana paid up. Vince Farrugia, a Maltese nation- al who also ran a gambling club in the East End, heard Mifsud say of Smithson: "We will have to get rid of him." It was alleged he hired under- world gunman Philip Ellul, also a Maltese, to kill Smithson. Ellul had been charged along with Victor Spampinato in 1956 for the murder of Smithson, by shooting him with a revolver in a Maida Vale boarding house. Ellul claimed Smithson had al- ready threatened to kill him. On the evening of 25 June, 1956, he and Spampinato went to see George Caruana at 'Blondie Bate's' boarding house, where he found Smithson there. "While talking to Miss Bates I saw her looking at something, and turning around, I saw Smithson with a pair of scis- sors in his hand," Ellul had told the court. "He said, 'I am going to have you now' and made a swing at me and I pulled out the gun. I ducked and hit him on the chin with my fist and he fell on the bed, He jumped up in no time and was after me. I thought he was going to hit me and I shot him." The prosecution, however, said Smithson had gone to the board- ing house for a business meeting with the landlord, and that while he waited in a flat, Ellul came in and shot him in the neck. That prosecution alleged Mifsud helped organise Smithson's killing, and that shortly before a remand appearance in 1975 at a London court, Mifsud said of Smithson: "He was a blackmailer. He only got what he deserved, He was always making me look small. I'm sorry, but he deserved it." Ellul was sentenced to death but reprieved four days before execu- tion. He served 11 years of a life sentence and went to America. But in 1974 he was found desti- tute at age 47 on a park bench in San Francisco, and he voluntarily came to the UK as chief witness in the case against Bernie Silver and Frank Mifsud. But he changed his mind and returned to the USA. The jury of six men and six wom- en took more than eight hours to bring in a verdict at the end of the week-long trial. After the Old Bailey acquittal of 22 March, 1976, Frank's brother Joe claimed he was the victim of a frame-up. "He has never mur- dered anyone in his life and never would." Carmelo Sultana, a Maltese cook, was however jailed in June 1976 for five nights after being found guilty of plotting with others to pervert justice over inquiries into the murder of Smithson. Sultana, then aged 45, denied conspiring with others. Frank Mifsud was also found guilty and jailed five years and fined £50,000 for suborning Harold Stocker to commit per- jury during a criminal court trial of Maltese gangsters Anthony Cauchi and Tony Galea. The of- fence was the result of three petrol bomb explosions at the clubs at the end of 1966 and the beginning of 1967, allegedly at the behest of Mifsud. Cauchi was jailed for five years and Galea for two years. Har- old Stocker, who ran a hotdog stall in Soho, had given false evidence in the trial of the two men. Frank's brother Joe was later jailed for two years along with Jo- seph Fenech and Emmaneul Borg, for trying to bribe Stocker not to appear as a witness. But Big Frank was until the last minute undeterred to see him- self avoid prison time. Witness Dr George Grant, senior medi- cal officer at Brixton Prison, was scolded by Judge McKinnon for attempting to have Mifsud re- manded into a mental institution without any prison sentence. "This seems to indicate a lack of touch with reality, for a senior medical officer… because [Mifsud] could be free [from] a mental hospital inside 12 months." maltatoday SUNDAY 10 DECEMBER 2017 News 1956 Maltese hitmen take out East End protection racketeer Thomas 'Scarface' Smithson was a member of the Billy Hill gang who was muscling in on the Silver-Mifsud gang's interests in gambling and prostitution. His protection racket put pressure on the Maltese Syndicate's activities and he was ultimately killed by Maltese gang member Philip Ellul, who was aided by Victor Spampinato. Ellul was sentenced to death but given a reprieve four days before the execution. He was found in San Francisco, living on a park bench in 1974, where he was asked to be chief witness in the trial of Frank Mifsud for the murder of Smithson. Up to no good: Philip Ellul and Victor Spampinato were members of the Syndicate, who were later found guilty of the murder of Thomas Smithson (above) According to the Met police, the Syndicate would collect over £100,000 in rents from prostitutes every week