Shropshire Star

Addicts embroiled in Shrewsbury drugs racket avoid jail

Five addicts who became embroiled in a county lines racket in which drugs were peddled to hundreds of people in Shrewsbury have avoided jail.

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The quintet fulfilled a series of roles including hiring a car, ferrying narcotics between different locations and letting ringleaders use their home as a drugs den in a conspiracy that stretched from Liverpool to Shropshire’s county town

Three of the five were told they would have been jailed had their sentencing for being concerned in the supply of class A drugs not taken so long to get to Shrewsbury Crown Court.

However Judge Anthony Lowe said that awaiting their fate for four years after the offences took place was “punishment in itself”.

It comes after the Liverpool-based ringleaders of the group were jailed for a combined 36 years earlier this week.

More on the case:

Paul Davies, 44, Andrew Quiney, 32, and Adrian Harley, 57, all received two-year prison sentences, suspended for two years for their roles in the organised crime.

Davies, of Churncote in Stirchley, Telford, drove for the gang on at least four occasions in exchange for drugs between the end of May and the end of July in 2015.

Quiney, of The Barn, Shawbury, played a similar part, driving for the group on multiple occasions over and eight-week period for bags of heroin.

Judge Lowe said: “The use of different cars was an important aspect, and will have made the group more difficult to detect.”

Harley, of Kenrick Close, Woore, near Market Drayton, was the gang’s ‘cuckoo’. They used his former home in Shrewsbury as a base for selling drugs.

Clare Ring, 49, of Aston Butts in Monkmoor, Shrewsbury, hired a car for the group.

Evidence was heard that “enforcer” Dean ‘Denga’ Pritchard threatened her with a gun. She was sentenced to two-year community order.

Erin Vesayaporn, 39, drove from Shrewsbury to Liverpool for the group on one occasion.

She was sentenced to a 12-month community order and 20 rehabilitation activity days.

A sixth defendant, Lee Dunbar, did not turn up for his sentencing, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Judge Lowe said that there was nobody to blame for the sentencing taking so long to get to court due to the the conclusion of the trial for three of the conspirators only happening in July.

However he did lament the fact that many courts that could have been used have lain empty.

Addressing the defendants in the court, he added: “There is a significant difference in those I sentenced earlier in the week and those I sentence today.

“These offences date back to 2015. Four years is an inordinate amount of time to wait.

“To have this hanging over your heads for four years can only be regarded as punishment in itself.”

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