British student convicted in secret terror trial mingled with ‘good friends’ of Princes William and Harry

'Playboy' Erol Incedal is serving a jail sentence after being found guilty of possessing a bomb-making manual

Law student Erol Incedal, 27, who was jailed for 42 months today at the Old Bailey for possessing a bomb making manual on a memory card taped to his iPhone case. (Rex)

A British law student who was accused of plotting a Mumbai-style attack in the UK’s first secret terrorism trial lived a billionaire’s lifestyle and mingled with “good friends” of Princes William and Harry, newly released court transcripts have revealed.

Erol Incedal, 27, is currently serving a three and a half year jail sentence after being convicted of possessing a bomb-making manual at his trial in April. Most of the legal proceedings were held behind closed doors in the interests of national security and many of the details of the case have never been made public.

But previously secret court documents have now revealed that Incedal was enjoying a playboy lifestyle at the time of his arrest in October 2013, mingling with the rich and famous at west London nightclubs despite having no recorded income other than his student loan.

During the trial, held at the Old Bailey in London, he said he had struck up a friendship with fellow Muslim student Ruslan Mamedov in 2007, who worked as a “gofer” for the billionaire sons of an Azerbaijani minister. The “fabulously wealthy” sons were also friends with Princes William and Harry, he claimed.

The group liked to mingle with celebrities and super rich Russians and Arabs at “very expensive” nightclubs such as Tramp, Mamounia Lounge and Salt, Incedal said. Mamedov would take he and his friend Mounir Rarmoul-Bouhadjar on spending sprees in London’s best department stores so they would not look out of place, he added.

“Me and Mounir we didn’t really have expensive clothes so...before Ruslan started taking us, he would always take us to places like Harrods, Selfridges and buy us expensive clothes to go to these places,” he told the court.

Defending, Joel Bennathan QC asked Incedal about evidence from a police bug planted in his car which recorded him bragging to Rarmoul-Bouhadjar about having “£20,000 in my pocket”.

Incedal explained: “Ruslan, my friend, he had four credit cards. Each card he could withdraw about £4,000 to £5,000. Because he would be spending that evening partying and drinking he would give me the money to look after.

“He had billionaire friends and he was basically working for them. They used to spend £20,000 to £30,000 in clubs every night so he would take out a lot and keep some of it for himself – not telling his boss, obviously. He would ask me to look after it in case they looked in his jacket and saw large amounts of money and then I would return it to him the following day.”

Asked if he really was carrying £20,000, he replied: “I actually wasn’t – it was £17,000 or something, but I rounded it up to show off to Mounir.” He told the court that Mamedov’s billionaire friends knew he was taking their money, “but for them it was like £5 or £10 so they didn’t really care”.

When he was arrested, Incedal was living in the billionaires’ luxury rented apartment near Paddington and driving a Mercedes which Mamedov had helped him buy. He told the court he had been “quite kitted out” in a £15,000 diamond Rado watch from Harrods, a £500 Hugo Boss jacket, a £300 pair of shoes and a Louis Vuitton wallet.

Incedal said that although they owned a house near the Royal Albert Hall, a £10 million home in Hampstead and another near Edgware Road, the billionaires needed somewhere central “to party” with women they had picked up in nightclubs.

They would also dare Mamedov to complete certain tasks in return for wads of cash, he added. “They are so wealthy, in Hyde Park, near Park Lane, I think it was a roller coaster, like a funfair. And Ruslan is scared of heights and stuff. So they said to him they would give him 20,000 euros if he went on the roller coaster,” he recalled.

“Other times they will say to him ‘If you can chat up this girl, I will give you 10 grand, 20 grand. So it was a joke for them really, money.”

Incedal also gave details about his trip with Rarmoul-Bouhadjar to the Syrian border in Turkey where he learnt about Kalashnikov rifles and met a jihadi called Ahmed who told him to go home and do some “shit”.

The law student, who has Turkish roots, repeatedly denied that he had actually planned to carry out any sort of terror attack in the UK and was cleared of targeting former prime minister Tony Blair or plotting a Mumbai-style attack.

However, he was eventually convicted of possessing a bomb-making manual. His friend Rarmoul-Bouhadjar, who is also 27, admitted having the same document on a memory card and was jailed for three years.