Mr Busby (45), of Forest Road, was acquitted of laundering huge sums of criminal cash on behalf of convicted Ashfield drugs dealer Gary Hardy following the conclusion of a two-month trial at Nottingham Crown Court.

Prosecutors had claimed Mr Busby, who has no previous criminal convictions and had been employed by Hardy in a variety of roles over a number of years, had knowingly banked around £1.5m of criminal proceeds into Hardy's personal and business bank accounts.

But the jury threw out the accusations, instead believing Mr Busby's claims that any cash banked by him had been legitimate profits from Hardy's extensive property and luxury car rental company.

Speaking exclusively to Chad, Mr Busby said justice had finally been done.

"I am over the moon that my name has been cleared," he said.

"I am an innocent man and I always knew I was innocent.

"Everything that I said was true and this has been proved in court. All I ever did was do my job and collect legitimate rents.

"I never had anything to do with drugs and I never saw any parcels of drugs.

"Whatever Gary was doing was nothing to do with me and I did not know about it.

"When we were all arrested it was a massive shock because we did not see it coming.

"On the morning I was arrested I was actually trying to call Gary to let him know I would be late for work.

"I just had to sit tight and hope that justice was done. I could not be certain that I would be cleared, but justice was done in the end.

"It has been total hell for me and an horrific experience. It has been something that was constantly on my mind whatever I was doing and it was really hard to sleep."

Shattered

Mr Busby, whose wife is expecting a new baby, says he is looking forward to returning to normal and rebuilding his shattered life.

"I want to thank all those people who stood by me throughout this ordeal," he added.

"I want to get on with life again now, to get back to normal and take care of my family. It is going to be very hard to do. The court case was hugely stressful and I am still trying to get over what happened.

"I had to deal with the deaths of my two sons in quick succession and now I have to cope with this. It feels like it is just one thing after another and very hard for me.

"Everything is still up in the air and we do not know what to do right now, but we are looking at moving and starting again somewhere else."

This week's Chad features a special five-page feature packed with the shocking details of the Hardy drugs trial. Including:

• How Gary Hardy went from a council tenant to a drugs kingpin with a multi-millionaire lifestyle.


• Police chiefs warn other drug dealers - 'We're coming to get you'.


• The courier who collected £100,000 a week for Hardy from pub and restaurant car parks.


• How Hardy's employees feared for their lives.


• How Ashfield's streets were flooded with hundreds of thousands of pounds of class A and B drugs.