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Mann was due to serve 30 years for his part in the attempted coup d'etat in 2004, but has been excused the rest of his sentence on health grounds.
Mann was arrested on March 7, 2004 as he waited on the tarmac at Harare airport, Zimbabwe, for arms to be loaded on to a Boeing 727 carrying 64 mercenaries recruited in South Africa and headed for Equatorial Guinea.
We'll show you where this budding conspirator and his buddies went wrong. Click here for our expert analysis. Cos we're the experts.
Perfect planning prevents poor performance
When and who initially hatched the plot to is still a mystery as the central figures in the plot seem content to point at one another. Mann recruited Nick Du Toit (pictured), a South African arms dealer and ex-member of 32 Buffalo Battalion, to put together a team of mercenaries and equip them with the necessary weapons to stage the coup.
Mann and Du Toit met with Hope Mutize, the Marketing Director of a Zimbabwe based arms dealer and placed an order with him for 20 machine guns, 61 AK-47 assault rifles, 150 hand grenades, 10 rocket-propelled grenade launchers (and 100 RPG shells), and 75,000 rounds of ammunition
But, as was to be a reoccurring issue for the conspirators, their operation had more leaks then a dingy made of cullenders and news of the deal found its way to South African authorities who tipped off Zimbabwean intelligence.
Rule 1: Don't do deals with dudes called Hope. Get your arms from a reputable vendor - Britain's very own BAE Systems perhaps.
Make your co-conspitors feel appreciated as part of the team
On March 9, 2004 Nick du Toit and 14 South African and Armenian men were arrested in Equatorial Guinea on suspicion of being the mercenaries' vanguard.He along with 18 other men accused of being the advance party for 70 other mercenaries. The prosecution asked for the death penalty but when all were found guilty only jail sentences were handed out with du Toit receiving 34 years, to be served in the notorious Black Beach prison.
Awaiting trail in 2008 Mann was desperate, he felt abandoned, and during his court appearance he sung like a canary. He implicated his financiers - Chelsea-based Lebanese oil billionaire, Ely Calil, who has always denied any knowledge of the plot, and Sir Mark Thatcher (pictured) son of former PM Margret Thatcher.
Rule 2: Don't leave your co-conspirator feeling neglected. It's important within any business to make sure your colleagues feel appreciated, this goes double if your business is overthrowing the heads of foreign states. If he feels you've left him out to dry, he may rat on you - big time.
Detailed lists in the hands of junior conspirators is a bad idea
Bank details of Simon Mann's Guernsey firm, Logo Logistics, reveal that a JH Archer made a payment of $134,000 (£74,000) into his account in the days before the failed coup attempt. Though part time jailbird and full time novelist Lord Archer released a statement saying he had "no prior knowledge" of the coup and that he had not spoken to Sir Mark for "approximately 10 years.Despite apparent phone records that show that in January, on the same day the plotters were meeting at Sandton, outside Johannesburg, Ely Calil called Lord Archer (pictured) and the pair apparently spoke for 15 minutes and other calls followed in the run-up to the coup attempt.
The names of the financiers were allegedly collected on the so-called "Wonga List" by James Kershaw, the then 24-year-old, who is believed to have acted as Simon Mann's accountant.
Rule 3: Don't keep detailed lists of all your financiers, their names and account details. And also don't make phone calls to your co-conspirators using a) your home-phone lines or b) mobile phones known to belong to you. Come on guys, it's just a bit of common sense - you are "conspirators" after all.
Select the right target
The plot was to oust the incumbent President since 1979 Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (pictured), who himself seized power in a bloody coup, executing the previous President, his own uncle, Francisco Macías.Obiang declared a break from the repressive regime of the previous administration, despite that and according to a United Nations inspector, torture "is the normal means of investigation" in Equatorial Guinea.
"There is no freedom of speech, and there are no bookstores or newsstands. The one private radio station is owned by Obiang's son. Since major oil reserves were discovered in Equatorial Guinea in 1995, Obiang has deposited more than $700 million into special accounts in U.S. banks. Meanwhile, most of his people live on less than $1 a day."
Rule 4: It's best not to try and oust a man who's regard for human rights can at very best be described as "pretty patchy" because if he does catch you, you might be in some trouble.
Head for the beach
Before leaving Equatorial Guinea, Mann said he regretted what happened in 2004. That it was wrong and was happy he didn't succeed. Sources in Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command told the BBC that police do want to talk to Mann about his claims regarding Mark Thatcher and Ely Calil, who now both reside abroad, and are still investigating whether any offenses relating to the coup were committed in the UK.
Rule 5: Skip the country. If there is any chance that an embittered former conspirator might get free and blow the whole shebang wide open, you probably won't want to be there when the proverbial poop hits the proverbial fan.
