Llandudno,North Wales - Two stopped on A55 had been used by gang to ferry drugs

Published date: 28 April 2016 | 

Published by: Staff reporter
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OCCUPANTS of a car stopped by police on the A55 in Flintshire were found to be ferrying hard drugs - and had been used by a criminal gang to do their dirty work for them, a court was told yesterday (Wednesday).

The driver, David Phillips, 32, admitted being concerned in the supply of heroin and cocaine on the basis that he drove a teenage girl who had drugs.

Phillips of Carlton Street in Prescott, Liverpool, was jailed for three years at Mold Crown Court this afternoon.

The court heard how the focus of Phillip’s life was currently his partner’s five year old daughter whose illness was causing him the most enormous concern.

The little girl had been to America with her mother to receive specialist treatment and had returned to Britain at the end of last month.

Co-defendant Jade Hender, 18, who was dressed in a onesie and no shoes on her arrest, had secreted class A drugs inside her body.

Hender of Ffordd Dewi in Llandudno, wept as she escaped an immediate sentence of youth custody.

She was given a 12 month sentence suspended for two years with drug rehabilitation and ordered to carry out 180 hours unpaid work after she admitted possessing the two drugs with intent to supply.

Judge Geraint Walters said that he had anguished over her case and warned that she could not complain if she “went straight down.”

But he told her “I want you to understand that what you did was very wrong.”
Initially she had claimed that Phillips had passed her the drugs when he realised police were following.

The judge said that when he indicated he was not going to accept that without hearing evidence, she had decided to tell the truth about what her role was.

She was being used by others in order to hide the drugs.

“You hid them inside your own body

“You knew what they were,” the judge told her.

She was just 17 at the time.

The judge said that both had been used by criminal gangs and those who involved themselves in the pebbling of class A drugs “simply wreck the lives of others.”

“All the indications are that people higher up the chain use people like you. Those higher up the chain, criminal gangs without an ounce of morality, who simply do this for their own financial greed.

Hender had only been 17 at the time, had fallen into bad company, and he said her parents must be despairing.

Phillips was motivated by a way of making some quick money but he knew what was going on. He was a grown man who drove a girl of 17 who was carrying drugs.

The judge said that the sentence took into account his personal circumstances.
“I am sympathetic to the personal difficulties that you have in relation to your partner’s daughter.

“I would have to be extremely hard not to feel sympathy for you and your family’s plight in that regard,” he said.

Prosecuting barrister John Philpotts told how at mid day on March 9 last year police followed a Chrysler vehicle off the A55 as it took the Northop exit.

It returned up the A55 and then stopped at a petrol station near Caerwys where both were arrested.

Hender had no shoes on, was wearing a onesie, and packages of heroin and cocaine which she had secreted inside her were found. A further package of drugs was found in the vehicle together with £1,200 cash, which the judge ruled should be used by police in the fight against crime.

Phillips told how he had been in Llandudno, drove to Prestatyn to pick the girl up, and was looking for a Starbucks when he was stopped.

Duncan Bould, for Phillips, said that he admitted being a driver when he knew his passenger was in possession of drugs. The cash was to buy construction materials.
Events in recent times had been life-changing for him, he was involved in the care of his partner’s daughter who had returned home from America after receiving specialised treatment. She was also making regular visits to Liverpool children’s hospital.

Sion ap Mihangel, for Hender, said that it was a stark choice for the court. She was a very young naive girl who had clearly been “used by others more experienced to do their dirty work for them”

Testimonials spoke very highly of her, and he said she had not realised the gravity of the situation that she had got herself into.

She had done it only the once, had been acting under the direction of others, and had been exploited, he explained.

see-http://www.rhyljournal.co.uk/news/161511/two-stopped-on-a55-had-been-used-by-gang-to-ferry-drugs.aspx