When it first aired on our screens in 2010, The Solely Means Is Essex launched viewers to a glamorous new breed of actuality tv stars.
The present adopted the lives of Brentwood's prosperous residents and the trivia of their on a regular basis lives; from trend fake pas to relationship woes.
What got here to be identified extra generally as TOWIE, the present introduced us the likes of Joey Essex, Gemma Collins and Mark Wright - all of whom have gone on to carve out showbiz careers and turn out to be family names.
However beneath the glitz and glamour of TOWIE lay a shady legal underworld - one which a number of the stars discovered themselves embroiled in.
The arrest of Arthur Collins in 2017 - then boyfriend of star Ferne McCann - following an acid assault in a London nightclub shed a brand new gentle on the glitzy actuality present.
From diamond fraud to murders and bullion heists, h ere MailOnline appears to be like at Essex's legal underbelly, dodgy dealings, shady characters and the celebrities who swapped the Sugar Hut for a jail cell.
Jake Corridor: Dated Actual Housewives of Cheshire star Misse Beqiri whose gangster brother was gunned down in entrance of his household by Swedish underworld murderer on Christmas Eve in tit-for-tat gang struggle
Jake Corridor starred within the present together with his co-star and mannequin girlfriend, Chloe Lewis. He went on to have a five-year relationship with fellow actuality determine, Missé Beqiri - the star of The Actual Housewives of Cheshire.
They started courting in 2016 and welcomed their daughter, River, collectively in 2017, and introduced their engagement in 2018. However final 12 months they cut up after 5 years collectively, following a 'sequence of explosive rows and her brother Flamur's homicide.'
Her brother Flamur 'Alex' Beqiri, 36, a father of two, was blasted 9 occasions in two seconds with a semi-automatic pistol in entrance of his spouse and their two-year-old son exterior his £1.7m Battersea dwelling on Christmas Eve in 2019.
Immediately, Swedish underworld murderer Anis Hemissi, 24, was at present convicted of his homicide.
A prime quality CCTV system Beqiri had put in for safety confirmed him arriving hand-in-hand together with his spouse from dinner at a Sloane Sq. restaurant when he was set upon by Hemissi, who shot him lifeless from behind.
Flamur first met his spouse Debora at his sister Misse's marriage ceremony to her now ex-husband, Manchester United goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard.
He was mentioned to have proposed after flying their households to a chalet in Kitzbuhel, Austria, the place he coated the ground in a 1,000 pink rose petals. The marriage featured a lavish ceremony at a lodge on Lake Como, Italy, in October 2018.
Beqiri, who had joint Swedish and Albanian nationality, claimed to be within the music enterprise however had been concerned within the worldwide medicine commerce from Spain, by means of the Netherlands and into Scandinavia since 2007 and had been arrested a number of occasions in Europe.
Ferne McCann's boyfriend: Jailed for 20 years after hurling acid over revellers in an east London nightclub after 'gangland struggle' spiralled uncontrolled
Arthur Collins, the ex-boyfriend of Ferne McCann, hurled acid over revellers on the dance ground at Mangle E8 in Dalston, east London, after a 'gangland struggle' spiralled uncontrolled in 2017.
He threw the corrosive substance indiscriminately at harmless individuals in what was certainly one of Britain's worst acid assaults. Sixteen individuals suffered chemical burn accidents and three individuals had been quickly blinded.
Collins, the daddy of Ms McCann's child daughter Sunday, instructed his trial he didn't know the bottle contained acid.
He claimed he believed it was a liquid date rape drug which he had snatched from two males after 'overhearing them planning to spike a lady's drink.'
He later admitted to advisor psychiatrist Dr Philip Joseph that he knew the bottle contained acid.
A jury convicted him of 5 counts of grievous bodily hurt with intent and 9 counts of precise bodily hurt.
It was later revealed the thug had employed a £50,000 main legal barrister to assist scale back his jail time period.
In 2018, Collins misplaced a bid to cut back his 20-year jail sentence. Three judges on the Court docket of Enchantment in London took lower than ten minutes to reject Collins' enchantment, arguing it 'the extreme sentence was totally justified.'
After the incident, he went on the run and was not caught till a number of days later hiding out in a home in Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire.
He has earlier convictions together with threatening phrases, possession of cocaine and assault, and was nonetheless topic to a suspended sentence for punching a person at a nightclub when he carried out the acid assault.
He was then jailed for one more eight months for utilizing a smuggled cell phone to name Ms McCann from his jail cell.
Sam and Billie Faiers' father convicted of assault
Sam and Billie Faiers' actual father, Lee Faiers was convicted of assaulting his accomplice Fay Simmons in June 2011.
He was given a neighborhood service order and instructed to attend a home violence programme.
Sam and Billie Faiers' stepfather jailed for £1.1million bullion heist
In April 2013, the sisters' stepfather was launched from jail after serving simply 4 months of a four-year jail sentence.
David Chatwood was jailed for 4 years for his half in £1.1 million bullion theft in December 2012 - however as a result of he had already served seven-and-a-half months on remand the profession legal was let loose early.
Chatwood was one of many ringleaders behind the staged theft gold and silver bars in Belgium.
Recognized to friends as 'Chatty', he helped organised the plot which noticed 29kg of gold and 160kg of silver stolen from a lorry close to Antwerp. He pleaded responsible on the plea and case administration listening to.
Cara Kilbey's boyfriend cleared of masterminding multi-million pound medicine empire
Cara Kilbey starred on the ITVBe present for 4 seasons earlier than departing in 2012.
Her boyfriend Daniel Harris, 33, was accused of constructing 'huge earnings' by sending drug couriers on mopeds disguised as trainee cab drivers round central London over three-and-a-half years.
He was cleared in 2017 of of two counts of conspiracy to provide cocaine, however discovered responsible of 1 depend of possession of legal property. Police discovered a stash of some £116,000 in ill-gotten positive aspects, hidden in his daughter's bed room.
Whereas he was sentenced to 2 years, he was launched after serving virtually a 12 months on remand in Wandsworth jail.
Lauren Goodger's jailbird boyfriend serving 16-year sentence for violent drugs-related expenses
Lauren Goodger was one of many unique solid of TOWIE in 2010, starring alongside then-boyfriend Mark Wright.
She dated Joey Morrison, who was sentenced to 16 years behind bars in 2010 after he dressed like a postman to burgle properties in Enfield, north London.
Morrison, was discovered responsible with Marvin Russell Jenkins, then each 24, and when he was arrested in 2009, police discovered £60,000 value of cocaine and a £90,000 Land Rover.
She was devastated when their two 12 months romance got here to an abrupt finish shortly earlier than his launch date in 2018, amid claims he despatched a slew of x-rated snaps to different ladies from his jail cell in HMP Highpoint South.
The previous TOWIE star admitted she regretted their time collectively, particularly because it didn't 'look good' for her to be in a relationship with somebody behind bars.
Beforehand talking of the ill-fated romance in her column for brand new! journal, she mentioned: 'I remorse giving two and a half years of my life to somebody who was in jail just for him to come back out and never be what I assumed.
'I assumed we had been going to get a home, get married and have children. I remorse the time I've wasted.'
Goodger's ex boyfriend's brother was stabbed to demise at a petroleum station after automotive chase - with murderers nonetheless at giant
The brother of TOWIE star Lauren Goodger's ex-boyfriend was stabbed to demise on a petroleum forecourt following a automotive chase in June, 2020.
Stephen Morrisson, 30, was fatally wounded in Epping, Essex, and rushed to hospital the place he later died.
His attackers fled the scene earlier than the authorities arrived and in June final 12 months, Essex police made an one other enchantment asking anybody with info to come back ahead. No arrests have been made.
Stephen was the youthful brother of Joey Morrisson, 34. Stephen had additionally frolicked behind bars in 2012, when he was jailed following a housebreaking during which a live-in gardener at an Essex hashish manufacturing unit died after falling by means of a roof.
Lauren met Joey, who was serving a 16-year sentence for possession of a firearm, kidnap, blackmail and precise bodily hurt, by means of her sister.
Gemma Collins's ex-boyfriend jailed for GBH and housebreaking
Gemma Collins joined The Solely Means Is Essex for the present's second sequence, in 2011.
Stephen Mortimer dated Collins from February 2015 to April 2016.
He had been launched early from his earlier two-year jail time period for GBH however breached the phrases of his licence by transferring into Miss Collins's home in Brentwood.
In October 2016, Mortimer was handed a two-year sentence for housebreaking. He broke right into a home in the midst of the afternoon and stole £100 in cash.
Simply 11 days earlier, the 35-year-old had compelled his approach into one other property and stolen jewelry.
Mortimer appeared by way of a video hyperlink from Chelmsford jail as he pleaded responsible to the cost.
Michael Hassini - jailed after being caught with excessive purity cocaine and MDMA
In December 2021, Michael Hassini was jailed for over six years after he was caught with £70,000 value of cocaine.
The private coach, who was on the ITV present between 2015 and 2018, was caught exchanging a brick of cocaine with Gary Bear, 23, within the Hornchurch space of Havering, east London, on April 16.
Hassini, 26, was seen by law enforcement officials carrying a brown cardboard field into Bear's gray Mercedes.
When police stopped the automotive, they discovered a group of smartphones and 'burner' telephones, and a duct-tape-wrapped block of cocaine.
Police arrested Hassini in his black Sensible automotive, the place he instructed them he had 'round £36,000 kilos in money, though he had not counted it but'.
After they searched the house they discovered three smaller blocks of high-quality cocaine, together with boric acid, a hydraulic press, steel plates, and small quantities of unfastened cocaine and MDMA.
Prosecutor Sean Sullivan instructed the court docket Hassini's cocaine was between 85 per cent and 98 per cent pure.
Hassini, of Brentwood, acquired a sentence of 6 years 9 months imprisonment.
Bear, of Hornchurch, each Essex, acquired a sentence of 5 years 3 months after admitting conspiracy to provide a category A drug, and possession of legal property.
In December 2016, then aged 22, the previous actuality TV star escaped jail after he was convicted of kicking a feminine custody officer after drunkenly crashing his Mercedes.
He was being held at Charing Cross police station when he assaulted detention officer Suzanne Werth within the early hours of August 15, 2016.
Hassini had admitted drink driving however he was convicted of assault by beating after a someday trial at Hammersmith Magistrates' Court docket.
He was ordered to carry out 180 hours unpaid work, pay £85 in prices and an £85 sufferer surcharge. Hassini was additionally disqualified from driving for 21 months.
Lewis Bloor: £3m diamond fraud trial collapsed after 'litany' of CPS failings to reveal proof - regardless of claims he 'conned 200 aged and weak victims of financial savings'
A £3 million diamond fraud trial involving The Solely Means is Essex star Lewis Bloor final 12 months collapsed after a 'litany' of Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) failings within the disclosure of proof.
Prosecutors had claimed round 200 victims, lots of whom had been aged, had been conned after being satisfied to purchase colored stones at a 600% mark up.
Mr Bloor, 31, who joined the ITV2 actuality programme for 3 years from 2013, was accused of being a part of the alleged cold-calling funding fraud earlier than his tv profession took off.
However the case collapsed final 12 months, some seven years after the investigation was launched in 2014 and 4 weeks into the Southwark Crown Court docket trial, for which dozens of alleged victims had supplied statements or given reside proof.
Mr Bloor, of Buckhurst Hill, Essex, was acquitted of conspiracy to defraud between Might 7 2013 and July 1 2014 by a jury on the path of Choose Adam Hiddleston.
The CPS deserted the prosecution after admitting materials that might have helped Mr Bloor and his co-defendants or undermined the prosecution case had not been correctly disclosed to defence attorneys.
Prosecutor David Durose QC mentioned the fabric was 'wrongly described', ought to have been given to the defence groups and that 'the inconsistencies had been profound'.
Narita Bahra QC, representing Potter, known as for the CPS to conduct an inquiry into the case after what she described as 'a litany of disclosure failings'.
She mentioned the Metropolitan Police instructed professional witnesses employed by Dreweatts auctioneers and valuers, an organization which had a contract with the drive to public sale jewelry and watches seized in raids and prosecutions.
Mick Norcross: Ex-Sugar Hut boss was 'battling £6.5million money disaster' earlier than being discovered lifeless after cryptic remaining tweet
TOWIE star Mick Norcross was discovered hanged within the basement of his Essex mansion final 12 months.
The favored tv character and former proprietor of The Sugar Hut nightclub in Brentwood was discovered hanged within the basement of his Essex mansion in Bulphan, close to Upminster, Essex on January 21, 2021.
Mates instructed MailOnline how he had suffered a 'big' monetary blow earlier than he was discovered lifeless after going through a £1.5million loss on a luxurious housing venture due to 'drainage issues' whereas owing £5.2million in financial institution loans on his lodge renovation venture hit by the coronavirus pandemic and going £1million over price range.
In a tragic remaining tweet, posted simply earlier than his physique was discovered, the 57-year-old wrote: 'On the finish remind your self that you simply did the perfect you can. And that's ok.' He's survived by his sons Kirk, Mason, Daniel and daughter Hollie. He additionally has three grandchildren.
Mick had bought the Sugar Hut nightclub in 2019 and targeting his property companies. Earlier than his demise he was growing the well-known Grand Resort in Leigh-on-Sea close to Southend into 18 luxurious flats, which stays unfinished.
He was additionally constructing 5 luxurious homes in Bulphan, known as the Bonham Grange Property, the place the asking value for a five-bedroom property is £1.75million. However a number of the properties have been available on the market since November 2019 and stay unsold. Mick lived in a mansion in the identical village, which he designed and constructed himself. He additionally had an antiques store in close by Brentwood.
However sources near the late constructing developer instructed MailOnline Mick was set to make £5million on the Bonham Grange venture however attributable to drainage points and the monetary value of repairing harm, his payout was anticipated to be slashed to £3.5million. It's believed the monetary loss was the newest in an extended line of cash points Mick had suffered over the previous two years, made worse by the impression of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mr Norcross additionally owed £5.2 million in financial institution loans on his lodge renovation venture, accounts present. The businessman's firm 460 Leisure Ltd is restoring The Grand Resort in Leigh-On-Sea in Essex.
Accounts for 460 Leisure filed in November, confirmed that the agency was £984,908 within the pink and the books mentioned financial institution loans stood at £5,216,666 for 2019 - up from £2.6m the earlier 12 months. The outfit had simply £3,600 in its coffers on the time the figures had been compiled.
Twice-married Mick was romantically linked to numerous TOWIE stars together with Maria Fowler, Chloe Sims and Gemma Collins, earlier than discovering love together with his former Sugar Hut Honey, Samantha Keahey, who went on to turn out to be the nightclub model's workplace. Mick and Samantha had been final seen collectively in early December is a sequence of Instagram photographs that gave the impression to be in his mansion's backyard.
He beforehand admitted having having struggles with psychological well being and his tendency to erect a 'laborious exterior' when the going bought robust and struggling to speak to household about issues with out it 'turning right into a shouting match'.
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