I'm not part of drug plot, Shropshire accused tells crown court
A 32-year-old man from Shropshire has told a jury he was not part of a major conspiracy to supply drugs in the county and earned his money as a tiler earning up to £400 a week.
Benjamin Pengilly said he worked with friend Philip Jennings, who he knew as 'Tommo', and was usually paid in cash.
Pengilly made the claim at his trial at Stafford Crown Court. He has denied conspiring to supply cocaine in April last year.
Pengilly, of Longden Coleham, Shrewsbury, was one of 28 people arrested during an extensive investigation into the supply of Class A drugs in Telford and Shrewsbury.
The jury has been told 26 people have admitted their roles in supplying cocaine, heroin and cannabis last year and are awaiting sentence. At court Pengilly said that he had no knowledge of the people arrested, apart from Jennings and a man named Andrew Morgan.
He said he only worked with Jennings and they occasionally had a drink after work but they did not socialise and he only knew Morgan from secondary school and as 'a local lad'.
Pengilly said he had no knowledge of Jennings' connection to drugs and it was never mentioned when they were at work. He also denied having anything to do with drugs, driving drugs around or selling them.
The court has heard that Pengilly, Jennings and Morgan were seen meeting outside the Old Bell pub in Abbey Foregate in April and later the defendant drove Jennings to the Knutsford Service Area on the M6 motorway in Cheshire.
The two men were said to have collected £40,000 worth of cocaine and driven back to Shrewsbury where they were stopped by police, who recovered the drugs and arrested the two men.
Judge Michael Chambers QC will hear Pengilly continue to give evidence today.
