Three members of a criminal gang which set up safe houses in Carlisle homes where children lived during a cunning plot to flood the city with illegal drugs have been stripped of ill-gotten gains.
Sixteen people were brought to justice by police for their respective roles in an illegal operation which saw desperate addicts targeted with text bombs advertising heroin and crack cocaine for sale.
The “county lines” supply enterprise saw main organiser Roy Hickman and key players travel from Merseyside to orchestrate the peddling of illicit substances by foot soldiers with addresses in the Carlisle area.
A prosecutor told the city’s crown court a process was used known as “cuckooing”, through which crooks stored drugs within — and moved into safe houses; some occupied by children.
But the drugs ring, which ran for around five months in 2018, was smashed by police and, the following year, jail terms totalling almost 90 years were handed down as the 16 defendants involved were sentenced.
It was hailed as the biggest county lines drugs plot foiled by Cumbria police. In the background, financial investigators went to work in a bid to strip financial profits made by the main men.
And at Carlisle Crown Court, three Merseyside-based gang members were slapped with confiscation orders by a judge and must now hand over ill-gotten gains, or surrender those already seized.
Dylan Thomas Yates and Christopher Westwell, both aged 28, and 22-year-old James Bailey were agreed to have benefited from their criminality to the tune of £261,159.84, £268,947.52 and £258,778.64, respectively.
The bulk of those benefit figures comprises the value of illegal drugs recovered by police during their investigation. This totalled around £259,000. Extra cash was added by investigators with the power to identify proceeds of a criminal lifestyle dating back six years before arrest.
Yates — jailed for 12-and-a-half years in 2019 — was deemed to have available assets of £2,455, including a watch which would be sold. Westwell — jailed for nine years nine months — had available assets of £3,158.87. Bailey’s available assets were agreed at just £387.60 — money held by the Department for Work and Pensions, which will be transferred to police. He had been jailed for nine years.
Judge Nicholas Barker ruled that funds must be surrendered within 56 days. Otherwise, defendants face further prison time.
*Hickman — jailed for 14 years five months — and 27-year-old fellow conspirator Thomas Terrance Wright — 10.5 years — are contesting the confiscation orders sought in respect of them. Judge Barker has heard evidence from prosecution and defence in a bid to resolve their cases, and will make a ruling later this month.
