I was Anthony Joshua’s lawyer when he was arrested for drugs… I did something VERY unusual to save his career

Tonight, Anthony Joshua will step into the ring at Wembley Stadium in front of over 90,000 boxing fans in his bid to become a three-time world champion.

The Arsenal heavyweight fan will take on Daniel Dubois. In his corner is Ben Davison, but in the most crucial fight of his career, Joshua had a former boxer, an award-winning crime writer and a lawyer backing him in an unwinnable fight.

Regina vs Joshua.

In one corner was the Crown Prosecution Service and in the other was Anthony Joshua, who had been arrested in 2011 before the London Olympics.

At the time he was a promising but unknown prospect in amateur boxing. To the Metropolitan Police he was a man who had been caught in a car with a bag of cannabis next to him. A fact he openly admitted.

A conviction for possession with intent to sell would end his boxing dream.

Luckily for the Watford athlete, he was represented by Tony Wyatt, better known as crime writer Tony Kent.

When a lawyer is faced with a client who has admitted to involvement in a crime, he is required to advise the client that he should plead guilty to the charge in question.

However, possession with intent to supply would have had an immediate impact on Joshua’s fledgling career. It would have ended it.

However, in view of the Olympic Games, the lawyer asked the judge for some freedom.

Mr Wyatt told MailOnline: ‘The case would have led to a very different career and life for him if it hadn’t turned out this way.

“Without going into the details, you can’t represent someone who tells you they’re guilty. The reality is that sometimes it’s very clear that someone is guilty and you have to give them very sound advice.

‘The problem was that if Josh had been convicted of possession with intent to supply, he would never have been allowed to box for Team GB, and he was already their super heavyweight.

“If he was found guilty, he would lose his ABA (Amateur Boxing Association) license.”

Mr Wyatt said Joshua was training for the upcoming European Championships, which were also a qualifying tournament for the London Olympics.

If he had not been allowed to participate in the qualifying match, he would not have been eligible to fight in London 2012.

He said: ‘If he had been convicted of intent to supply he would never have been able to fight in America and that would have made him a much less attractive prospect for professional boxing.

“It was clear that he was someone with a potentially great future who would be lost if he did what would legally be called the ‘right thing’, namely plead guilty.”

Tony said he and Joshua were very lucky with the judge who heard the case.

He said: ‘We did something that was a bit unusual. We were very lucky with Judge Lyons, who is a bit of a maverick.

“He was willing to think outside the box.”

Mr Wyatt said he had first contacted the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and that they should fight the case even though they could not win. He did not want Joshua to lose his future.

Child protective services said they couldn’t do anything for us.

“So I took a risk and went before Judge Lyons and just said, ‘Here’s the problem. If we fight this case, we’re going to lose this case, we know that. But we can’t not fight this.’

‘I said, ‘if you look at it, it’s cannabis, which is not a class A drug, it’s a class B and it wasn’t a huge amount. It was a medium amount. If you look at the sentencing guidelines, you’re not going to go to jail for what is essentially a first offence.

“If Parliament, when it passed these laws, didn’t think it was worth losing your future… I didn’t think it was worth losing such an extraordinary future either.”

Mr. Wyatt said he had made the judge a deal proposal.

“I said this was one of the scenarios where we could save this young man’s future.

We can make sure that this mistake does not rob us of a future that none of us has ever had and that almost no one will ever have.

“I said we can make sure he doesn’t lose because of a youthful mistake and at the same time we can do something positive.”

Mr Wyatt said he had informed the judge that his client was prepared to plead guilty to the lesser charge of possession. He said the judge could impose a community service order of 300 hours – which he would have to serve at a boxing club where young children were taught.

He said the judge turned to the prosecution and said Wyatt’s motion was “very logical” and that the prosecution should also show the same kind of common sense.

After a brief discussion, the CPS accepted the proposal, saving Anthony Joshua’s career.

But Mr. Wyatt downplays his involvement in Joshua’s career.

He said, ‘He’s the one who takes the punches, who does all the training and is a great boxer all year round.

“If the criminal justice system is meant to re-educate people and try to make them better citizens, then that is the option we should choose.”

In his latest book, The Shadow Network, written under the pseudonym Tony Kent, one of his main characters, Michael Devlin, recently welcomed twins.

But fans of the series starring Devlin and his partner Joe Dempsey soon associated the name of one of their sons with a famous fictional character from Jack Higgins’ classic thriller The Eagle Has Landed.

However, Tony said it was “complete coincidence” that he named the character Liam Devlin.

For those who haven’t read Dempsey and Devlin’s books, Michael Devlin is a Belfast-born lawyer whose family consists of a gang of notorious criminals. He is thus forced to change his name from Casey to Devlin – after his mother – to minimize the connection.

In the first book, Devlin’s brother and best friend, one of whom is named Liam, die.

‘I never made the connection with Liam Devlin until the book came out. I took the name from my family. My great-grandfather was called Michael Devlin and Liam Devlin was his brother, so I just used that.

‘It wasn’t until my editor got around to it that she said she’d just realised who Liam Devlin was. As a result, I had to go back and make a change to the book about how Devlin was forced to change his name because his family were big criminals in Belfast, just because I hadn’t discovered the link between Liam Devlin and a very famous book.’

Next month Tony will be hosting the Chiltern Kills Crime Writing festival in Gerrard’s Cross on Saturday 5th October 2024.

Dozens of the country’s top crime writers are attending the event, which will raise money for Centrepoint Youth Homeless Charity.

All money raised during the event will go to charity, including the authors’ fees.

According to Tony, everyone even pays for their own travel and accommodation, while the sponsors pay for the location.

Attendees include Jeffrey Archer, Ian Rankin, Peter James and the stars of the 1980s police series Dempsey and Makepeace.

The event’s patron is legendary thriller writer Frederick Forsyth.