A heroin supplier caught red-handed with a dealer’s kit including phones and weighing scales inside a Maryport address has been given a lengthy prison sentence.
Ryan Neil Simpson, 45, came to the attention of police who executed a warrant at the Ellenfoot Drive property on October 12 last year.
Simpson was present with a female, who was handcuffed having apparently tried to conceal drugs.
Simpson made a move to jump into the corner of a room and was seen to either try and hide or interfere with an item, Carlisle Crown Court heard today.
Officers approached him and, under the threat of using incapacitant spray, persuaded him to release his grip on one mobile phone which he was found to have damaged.
Other phones were found in the address along with 7.5g of class A controlled drug heroin, plastic wrapping and digital weighing scales.
When brought to court Simpson, of Well Lane, Maryport, admitted possessing the illegal substance with intent to supply.
Recorder Julian Shaw was told of his 169 past crimes, scores of which were for drugs possession.
However, there were also two past convictions for illegal supply of both ecstasy and cocaine — respectively in Stranraer during 2008, and in Cumbria three years later — triggering a mandatory seven-year jail term for “three-strike” offending anywhere in the UK.
Peter Wilson, for Simpson, drew the court’s attention to his mental health difficulties including post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, and other personal issues. The most recent drugs supply crime, said Mr Wilson, had been undertaken to fund a long-standing habit.
Recorder Shaw noted Simpson was also in breach of a suspended prison term imposed at Carlisle Crown Court in July, 2023.
Given the large number of drug-related criminal convictions, personal troubles and lifetime of substance misuse, the judge observed: “It is quite remarkable you are still alive today.”
For the latest drug trafficking wrongdoing, and for flouting last year’s suspended term within weeks, Recorder Shaw imposed a 46-month jail sentence. He concluded, however, it would be “unjust” to activate the minimum seven-year term for repeat offending given the age of Simpson’s first trafficking crime in south west Scotland.
