FORMER packhouse director and convicted fraudster Andrew Barette has been freed from jail pending appeal after a juror failed to disclose farming links at the outset of the trial.

Two months ago Barette (39) was found guilty by an Assize jury of fiddling packhouse figures to short-change growers.

He was sentenced to a 12-month jail term and ordered to pay costs of £10,000, but immediately applied to the Court of Appeal for a case review.

Four days later an application was lodged for bail pending the appeal hearing, but it was dismissed.

Defence counsel Advocate Danny Le Maistre said that Barette’s lawyer at the time, Advocate Michael O’Connell, received information from the prosecution on the last day of the trial to suggest that one juror could have shown apparent bias.

Because the jury had already retired, Advocate Le Maistre said that it would have been too late to raise the points with the Bailiff.