A CASINO inspector from Sheffield, accused of plotting to steal thousands of pounds at a roulette table, has been cleared after claiming a croupier set him up following a brief fling.
James Roome, aged 27, insisted his working relationship with Carla Delve became frosty after they shared a rendezvous in the toilets at the plush Park Tower Casino in London's Belgravia.
The prosecution had claimed Roome illegally helped his frien
d, restaurateur Ashraf Kamel, 51, win £12,000 on a single roll of the wheel.
But jurors at Southwark Crown Court found Roome not guilty.
He claimed croupier Carla Delve framed him.
The trial heard Kamel had been placing small bets all night with mixed success until, out of the blue, he placed the huge bet on the single number 17.
Mrs Delve claimed there were no chips on the number but, when she turned to Roome to back her up, he said he heard Kamel making the bet.
Roome, whose job it was to oversee the action, insisted Kamel had placed the chip down properly.
He told jurors married Mrs Delve concocted the story after the pair had a sexual liaison at a party at the casino. He said the encounter made them both feel uncomfortable at work.
"I'm not sure whether it was because she was watching her own back or what her reasons were but I can't think why she has said all this stuff about me," he said.
"Nothing out of the ordinary happened at the casino that night.
"I heard a bet being called and I told Carla Delve I had heard it. I was not in any need of any money and I would not have done something like that."
Roome, of Valetta Road, Acton, west London, and Kamel, of north west London, were both cleared of conspiracy to defraud.
