A Lake District hotel worker is facing a seven-year prison sentence for a repeat cocaine supply crime.
Michael Patrick Kinsella, a 46-year-old former DJ who has held jobs in the security and hospitality industry, went on trial at Carlisle Crown Court.
He denied possessing both cocaine and crack cocaine with intent to supply in Windermere on June 9, 2019, when police followed his car and he pulled over.
From his jeans pockets, police recovered 11.6g of powder cocaine of 68 per cent purity, and a quantity of crack cocaine weighing in at 0.829g.
Almost £300 cash was also seized. A drug wipe test gave a positive indication of cocaine use by Kinsella, who didn’t provide any PIN code for an iPhone taken from him.
Nor did he answer questions during interview, instead providing a prepared statement in which he flatly denied involvement in controlled drugs supply.
A police drugs expert told jurors the purity of cocaine recovered from Kinsella was “high for a street deal”. A suggestion could be made, he concluded, that the drug could be “further cut” and adulterated to bulk out and increase profit margin.
But Kinsella, convicted in both 2010 and 2014 for cocaine supply crimes, denied this was the reason he had drugs in 2019. He claimed he bought them the day before in Windermere for himself.
Formerly a heavy user, he spoke of now being clean and, for the past 12 months, working and living at Ullswater’s Inn on the Lake, Glenridding.
But jurors convicted him unanimously of the supply crimes. He now faces a minimum seven-year jail term for repeat offending unless a judge deems such a sentence unjust.
Recorder David Temkin QC adjourned the case for the preparation of background information, granting Kinsella bail until August 5. But Recorder Temkin told him: “As you realistically know, you are going to have to expect a custodial sentence.”
