Lou Vincent (right) departs Southwark Crown Court with his wife Susie after giving evidence in the perjury trial of former New Zealand cricketer Chris Cairns in London.

Jurors in the Chris Cairns trial have been warned by the judge they must treat the evidence of confessed match-fixer Lou Vincent with care given his tendency to lie.

The warning is important, given the perjury charge Cairns is facing.

To be proved, perjury requires more than the evidence of one witness to be accepted as true.

CARL COURT/GETTY IMAGES Former New Zealand cricketer Chris Cairns' perjury trial in London is nearing an end, with the judge offering advice to the jury on Friday (Saturday NZ Time).

Justice Sweeney, told the seven women and five men on the jury they had to be sure of the evidence of at least two of the three key Crown witnesses.

Vincent is one. New Zealand cricket captain Brendon McCullum and Ellie Riley - Vincent's ex wife are the others.

In his summing up, Justice Sweeney said Cairns was of good character, apart from keeping money in cash to avoid tax, while his co-accused Andrew Fitch-Holland had an unblemished record.

Justice Sweeney spent a large part of his summing up in Southwark Crown Court on Friday (Saturday NZ Time) outlining the various flaws of Vincent, the opening witness in the Crown case against Cairns.

He pointed out the "potential danger" Vincent "might have his own interests to serve" in both the case of Cairns and Fitch-Holland, who had been the cricketer's legal adviser.

Vincent has told the court Cairns introduced him to match-fixing when his captain at the Chandigarh Lions in the 2008 Indian Cricket League. He also said the former New Zealand captain approached him to fix a game in England that year.

Vincent confessed to fixing in 2013, and copped a life ban for it last year.

Cairns, 45, is accused of lying under oath in court when he said during his Lalit Modi libel trial "I have never, ever cheated at cricket. Nor would I ever contemplate such a thing".

Perjury is a criminal charge which carries a maximum sentence of seven years.

Cairns is also charged with perverting the course of justice, alongside Fitch-Holland. They have denied all charges.

Vincent surreptitiously taped Fitch-Holland in 2011, when he Skype-called him to get him to provide a statement to the Modi hearing. That recording led to the English barrister being charged with seeking a false statement.

Justice Sweeney noted Vincent had admitted fixing games across the world, was involved in trying to recruit Englishman Mal Loye, New Zealander Andre Adams, Zimbabwean Murray Goodwin, and Pakistani Azhar Mahmood to fix. All except Adams reported him.

He had admitted to corruption, fraud, money laundering and bribery in England, to working for bookies to fix games, and tried to lie his way out of trouble.

While the prosecution contention was that "you can be sure that Vincent is telling the truth", the defence has argued with the vultures circling he needed to hand the authorities a big name - Cairns - to minimise the consequences of his cheating.

While banned for life from cricket, Vincent had already given the game up at the time, and was said to be writing a book.

Vincent was giving himself an "insurance policy", the defence has argued, not confessing for the good of the game as he has claimed.

Justice Sweeney said the jury should be particularly cautious Vincent might have his own interests to serve by testifying.

Care had to be taken when a witness asserted someone else was involved his crime, so he could escape or reduce punishment by reducing own role and "aggrandising the role of others", the judge said

He also criticised the police investigation, which he said appeared to regard the International Cricket Council life bans "as a sufficient way to deal with his behaviour".

The court had been told before Vincent testified he was "still in peril" of criminal charges, and didn't have to answer questions that might incriminate him.



He had relied on that guidance to avoid answering on a "few occasions", the judge said. It later emerged he was actually "not in peril", Justice Sweeney said.

Vincent was not in danger of prosecution in England up to the time he gave evidence, and the possibility of a private prosecution "is modest", he said.

"Any impression given that he was in peril of prosecution was wrong and should not form any part of your considerations.

"With those warnings firmly in mind, what you make of his evidence in the end is entirely a matter for you."

While there had been rumours about fixing in India, Modi's 2010 tweet linking the defendant to fixing and former Chandigarh player Andrew Hall saying Cairns had told him the ICL had kicked him out for alleged fixing "you have heard such evidence for strictly limited purposes," Justice Sweeney told the jury.

It could be used as background, or be relevant to state of mind. The same applied to witnesses Vincent told about Cairns, and witnesses McCullum told Cairns had approached him to fix.

McCullum has alleged Cairns twice asked him in 2008 to get involved, once in India and once in England.

Cairns has denied the allegations.

The prosecution had argued those witnesses proved "the fact" that Vincent and McCullum had told people well before they went to the authorities, so the statements were not a "recent invention.

The defence had argued they were part of the Vincent "insurance policy" while McCullum had "aggrandised" two meetings into something they never were.



The Fitch-Holland quotes relayed by former Black Cap Chris Harris - "he's guilty, Cairnsy's guilty" were evidence only in the case of the English barrister.

The previous good character of Cairns "is not a defence as such", the jury was told.

It did count in his favour, in that it supported his credibility, and pointed to him being "less likely" to have committed an offence.

The jury would have to decide what weight to give that, he said.

While the prosecution had pointed out Cairns carried out "a tax fiddle", the defence did not agree, he said.

"Such activity is very different to the offences he is charged with."

The jury should avoid emotion "of any type", guard against speculation, and use their common sense.

If Cairns was found not guilty on the perjury charge, the perversion charges against him and Fitch-Holland would automatically fail, as they could not have been seeking a "false" statement.

Only a unanimous verdict could be accepted, he said.

Justice Sweeney will complete his summing up on Monday (Tuesday NZT), with the jury likely to retire the following day.

The case started on October 6.