Harrogate council housing officer stole from elderly residents

A Harrogate council officer has been found guilty of stealing from two elderly residents at sheltered accommodation in Ripon.

Yvonne Jones, 60, who at the time was a housing and estate officer for Harrogate Borough Council, asked the victims to pay a week in advance for rent at council-run sheltered accommodation – but kept some of the cash for herself, York Crown Court heard.

One of the named victims, a woman “of some years”, was conned out of £405 after moving into a new council-owned flat.

Prosecutor Philip Standfast said the victim, from Ripon, signed for the new flat in January 2018, when Jones visited her and completed the paperwork.

About two weeks later, Jones, from Harrogate, visited her again and asked her for a payment of £405. Mr Standfast said:

“(The victim) asked her if she wanted cash or a cheque and Jones said she would take cash.”

The victim paid cash and Jones gave her a receipt on a business card, but it showed two figures of £180 and £225 rather than the whole £405. Mr Standfast said:

“(The victim) didn’t question why that receipt was written in that particular way.

“Later, her account was checked by a neighbourhood team leader with the council and there was no record of that cash being paid into that lady’s account.”

Mr Standfast said there were three payments of £85.67 into the council’s account in January and February 2018, but that still left a deficit of £147.72 which had not been credited to the victim’s account.

Fleeced second victim out of £449

The second victim, a man who took up a tenancy at Blossomgate Court in Ripon, was fleeced out of £449 by Jones, whom he first met in February 2018.

She asked him for £200 for rent which he didn’t have on him, but he withdrew it from his bank the following day. Mr Standfast said:

“Despite having asked for £200, (Jones) gave him £20 back, saying he had given her too much.

“It’s not clear why she did that.”

On February 8, Jones met the named victim again and asked for another £200 rent. Mr Standfast said:

“He offered her a cheque, but the defendant said she needed cash and he withdrew it and paid it to her.”

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In early March 2018, there was a direct debit from the victim’s account to the council for £600, but Jones told him he owed £669. Mr Standfast said:

“She claimed the council could only take an amount of £600 from his account, so he withdrew (the extra) £69 from his bank and paid that to her.”

The victim’s rental account was checked and the £469 he had given her, minus the £20 she gave him back, had not been credited to his account. He notified the council of this.

Acquitted of three other charges

Jones, of High Street, Starbeck, was found guilty of these two thefts following her trial which ended on Friday, April 1. She was acquitted of three other counts in relation to three other tenants.

Mr Standfast said that Jones, who denied all allegations, had been employed as a housing and estate officer at the council from 2014 to 2018, when she was finally caught and ultimately resigned from her post.

‘Her role included dealing with tenants (at Blossomgate and Bondgate Court in Ripon) and “where necessary” taking payments from them for rent and other services.

Mr Standfast said it was “only in exceptional circumstances” that cash should have been taken from a tenant for rent. He added:

“If cash were taken, an official Harrogate Borough Council receipt should have been issued and cash paid in by in by the (housing) officer to a cash-deposit facility.

“That machine would issue a receipt and the cash would be credited to the tenants’ accounts on the following day.”

Mr Standfast alleged that Jones had also taken cash from three other “vulnerable” tenants and either didn’t issue receipts for these payments or did hand them receipts but didn’t forward some of that cash into the council’s account.

These alleged victims included a named man with learning difficulties who needed care and a 77-year-old pensioner with terminal cancer who was receiving housing benefit. However, Jones was acquitted of these three allegations.

Mr Standfast alleged that all the complainants’ accounts were checked by a team leader at the council, who “found discrepancies between what had been paid by the tenants and what was found in their accounts”.

Enquiries were carried out and Jones was suspended in March 2018. She resigned four days later.

Jones will be sentenced for the two convicted offences on April 29.

Harrogate district care worker jailed after sexually abusing vulnerable resident

A former Harrogate district carer once hailed a “health-care hero” has been jailed for over six years for sexually abusing a mentally disordered woman.

Carl McQuilliam-Jenkins, 49, groomed and sexually assaulted the woman at a care home in the Harrogate district over a seven-month period, York Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Catherine Silverton said the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had reluctantly consented to sex but did not have the mental capacity to do so.

McQuilliam-Jenkins, a father-of-two who won a ‘Local Health Care Hero’ award in 2016 in a separate part of the country, had sex with her on several occasions and told her to make it their secret.

Ms Silverton said the victim had a personality disorder which meant she was “easily led”, over-eager to please people and easy prey. Her condition was so acute that she found it difficult to make decisions for herself, forcing her family to place her in residential care.

McQuilliam-Jenkins, who was an agency worker, had duties which included working at the named care home four or five times a week.

He was “aware of (the victim’s) vulnerabilities”, having raised concerns with his work supervisor in April 2019 about “internet contact” she had had with a male resident of the home.

Exploited her mental disorder

McQuilliam-Jenkins warned staff she was vulnerable – but then began exploiting her mental disorder to sexually abuse her.

In January 2020, the victim told staff she had had sex with McQuilliam-Jenkins. Miss Silverton said:

“She said she had a sexual relationship with the defendant.”

Before the abuse began, the victim told McQuilliam-Jenkins that she liked him and asked for his telephone number. Miss Silverton added:

“He gave it to her but said it would have to be a secret, otherwise he would lose his job. She said they exchanged ‘sex texts and dirty messages’ and communicated via Facebook.”

McQuilliam-Jenkins sent her pictures of an intimate part of his body and a video in which he performed a lewd act. She in turn sent him photos of intimate parts of her body.

The victim said that McQuilliam-Jenkins “wanted to do sex and I said yes”. Miss SIlverton said:

“She said at first she liked him, but she said it was ‘getting too much with the sex things and stuff’. She said she didn’t want the sex to happen but she consented because she wanted to make him happy.

“She said she went along with it because he wanted it to happen. She said it was always him who instigated it.”

Arrested after a complaint

The victim, who also suffers from anxiety, said McQuilliam-Jenkins never used contraception and “continued to tell her to keep their sex a secret to prevent him losing his job”.

The victim, who needed 24-hour care, had to have treatment at a clinic after suffering a genital condition due to having unprotected sex with her abuser.

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McQuilliam-Jenkins, from Durham, was ultimately arrested after a complaint was made to police and was initially charged with six counts of sexual activity with a mentally disordered female while working as a care worker. The charges alleged that he knew or ought to have known that the woman had a mental disorder.

He initially denied all allegations but ultimately admitted three of the six charges. The offences occurred between July 2019 and January 2020. He appeared for sentence today

In a statement read out in court, the victim said she had felt “anxious and upset” and thought it was “okay to be with (McQuilliam-Jenkins) because he told her it would be okay”.

She had since not been sleeping and was worried that “people would call her a liar”.

McQuilliam’s wife had left him since his offences came to light, adding his offending had had a big impact on her family.

Care worker for 15 years

Syam Soni, mitigating, said McQuilliam-Jenkins realised his actions were “patently inappropriate”.

He said McQuilliam-Jenkins was himself suffering from mental health problems at the time due to work pressures and being the sole breadwinner for his family..

McQuilliam-Jenkins, of Howarth Terrace, Haswell, had worked in the care industry for 15 years with a “hitherto-unblemished record”.

Judge Simon Hickey said the victim was “clearly vulnerable and this was known by (McQuilliam-Jenkins)”. He told the defendant:

“You were aware of her vulnerability. She simply consented (to sex) to make you happy.”

Jailing McQuilliam-Jenkins for six years and four months, the judge told him he would have to serve half of that sentence behind bars before being released on prison licence.

McQuilliam-Jenkins was also placed on the sex-offenders’ register for life and made subject to a sexual-harm prevention order for an indefinite period. He was barred for life from working with vulnerable adults.

The prosecution said they accepted McQuilliam-Jenkins’s denials to the other charges on a “pragmatic basis” and would be offering no further evidence on those allegations.

Harrogate care worker steals £30,000 from victim to fund gambling addiction

A Harrogate care worker stole over £30,000 from a woman with schizophrenia and learning disabilities after developing a major gambling habit.

Linda Thornton, 32, worked for Caretech in Harrogate. She transferred money from the victim’s bank account to her own during a nine-month fraud campaign in which she “drained” the woman’s finances to the tune of £33,525, York Crown Court heard.

All the while, Thornton was using the money to fund her online gambling, spending over £100,000 in nine months and losing £22,000.

Prosecutor Elizabeth Muir said the victim had trusted Thornton “above all other (care workers)” and the two women formed a close bond.

One of Thornton’s roles was to look after the financial interests of the named victim, who lived in supported accommodation provided by the care group.

Ms Muir said the victim, who was 46 at the time, had moved into supported accommodation in late 2018, shortly after receiving a benefits back payment of £28,095.

Asked to borrow money

Suspicions arose when another woman receiving care told her support worker that Thornton, formerly of The Crescent, Guiseley, but currently of no fixed address, had asked to borrow money from her. Ms Muir said:

“Linda Thornton pleaded with her to hand her some money and said it would be their little secret.”

The matter was reported to managers at the care group and an investigation began. Meanwhile, Thornton, from Leeds, had taken out a £4,000 loan in the name of another staff member, while also rifling through the victim’s account. Ms Muir said:

“It became clear that (Thornton) had assisted (the victim) in setting up online banking, but also she could access (the victim’s) bank account through her mobile. On one occasion, (the victim’s) bank card was declined because no funds were left in that account.”

The distraught victim went to Thornton for help, not realising it was she who was stealing the money.

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The investigation revealed that between April 2019 and the end of January 2020, Thornton transferred £33,525 from the victim’s bank account to her own.

Ms Muir added that Thornton had paid back just under £15,000 to the victim between May and December 2019.

‘I trusted her’

Following her arrest, Thornton made a full admission to police and said she had “lost track of how much money she had taken”.

She pleaded guilty to fraud and appeared for sentence today following delays to the court case.

In a statement read out in court, the victim said she was very upset and “disappointed” that the woman she trusted had defrauded her:

“I trusted her and thought she would do the right things for me. I was shocked. I had done some nice things for her.”

She said she was worried she wouldn’t be able to pay her bills and no longer trusted people.

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Adam Birkby, mitigating, said although she had “abused a position of trust”, Thornton was “overwhelmed” by debt at the time and had a serious gambling problem.

Thornton “foolishly” imagined she could repay the money to the victim through online gambling, but she “quickly became addicted”.

He said Thornton was “deeply ashamed” of her actions. She had lost her job and her home following her arrest, the relationship with her boyfriend had collapsed and she still had debts.

However, she had since beaten her gambling addiction and had found new work as a manager of a local business.

Suspended sentence

Judge Simon Hickey told Thornton she had “drained” the bank account of a “very vulnerable lady…who trusted you”.

He said it was clear that Thornton had become “trapped” in an “insidious and pernicious” online gambling addiction, was genuinely remorseful and had until the fraud been of “impeccable” character.

“Gambling is what has destroyed your life so far, but you have managed to address that.”

Mr Hickey said that because of the delay in the court case and strong personal mitigation he could suspend the inevitable jail sentence. The 22-month prison sentence was suspended for 18 months.

Thornton was ordered to repay the victim the full £18,593 still outstanding and participate in a 35-day rehabilitation programme.

Harrogate man jailed for historic sexual abuse of young girl

Warning: This article contains details some readers may find distressing.

A child abuser has been jailed for nine years for the horrific sexual abuse of a young girl in the 1990s.

Kevin Chandler, 61, from Harrogate, preyed on the youngster after grooming her to satisfy his sexual desires, York Crown Court heard.

The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, didn’t go to police for 20 years after the abuse stopped and was so psychologically scarred she needed counselling.

Chandler, who was in his 30s when he abused the child, was charged with six counts of indecent assault and two of gross indecency with a child but denied all allegations. 

However, a jury found him guilty on all eight counts following a week-long trial in January. He appeared for sentence today.

Prosecutor Katherine Robinson said the abuse lasted almost six years, when the girl was very young.

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She said the victim, now an adult, would have made a complaint much earlier but she was “scared” of Chandler.

Groomed to think it was normal

He began the abuse by kissing and sexually touching her and then making her do the same to him. He went on to perform more serious sexual acts upon her and made her perform lewd acts on him.

Following the second assault on the youngster, she was so distraught she put a rope around her neck, said Ms Robinson.

In a separate incident, the victim was left “frightened, distressed and crying” after Chandler “kissed her like an adult” and forced her to touch him on an intimate part of his body.

Ms Robinson said the victim felt she was to blame and that, even at her tender age, she was made to feel “like it was an affair” or a “special relationship”.

She was described as “very vulnerable” and a “very troubled little girl” at the time due to an already-traumatic childhood. 

She had been “groomed” by Chandler to “sexualise” her and to make her “feel this was normal”. 

She was left “utterly distraught”, added Ms Robinson.

The victim, who told her husband years later but still didn’t feel able to go to the police, felt an inexplicable guilt and suffered panic attacks. 

Ms Robinson said the victim finally reported matters after “she managed to shake her fears, her shame…after all these years”.

Chandler, who is married with children, claimed the victim had “made up” the allegations.

“I have been robbed of years of peace and joy”

The victim appeared in court via video link to see her tormentor receive his comeuppance for years of abuse which had torn her life apart.

In a tearful and profoundly moving statement which she read out herself, she said the abuse had caused her “great stress, confusion and fear as I was psychologically abused by (Chandler)”.

She added:

“It has been 27 years now since (Chandler) started to sexually and psychologically abuse me.

“How do I find the words to describe 27 years of pain and fear and horror?”

The victim said she had received counselling and expected to continue receiving treatment “for years to come”.

She said the whole process of taking the case to court had been “excruciating for me” as it brought back all her “darkest memories and darkest thoughts”.

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The victim said that before Chandler started abusing her, she had been a “sweet and innocent” girl who was “full of potential for love and joy”.

She added:

“I was a kind and thoughtful girl, but he made me disgusting and horrible.

“What he did to me made me dirty and horrible and alone and unlovable. I’ve spent the rest of my life trying to undo that.”

The victim added: 

“When I see photos of myself from the time he was abusing me…I feel overwhelmed for the grief of what I should have been. 

“I should have been carefree and trusting and innocent. Instead, I was (pitched) into a dark and lonely and shameful place for years.”

The victim said she was left feeling “fundamentally worthless”.

She added:

“I have been robbed of years and years of peace and joy.”

Chandler “targeted and groomed” young girl

Nicholas Worsley, mitigating, said Chandler had led an otherwise blameless working life. He was a good husband and had been involved in voluntary work.

Judge Simon Hickey said it was “as clear as winter ice” that Chandler had targeted and groomed the young girl.

He added:

“In my judgement, you are a classic child abuser.”

Jailing Chandler for nine years, Mr Hickey told him he would have to serve two-thirds of that sentence behind bars before being released on prison licence.

In addition, the judge made a lifetime sexual-harm prevention order prohibiting Chandler from having any advertent contact with girls under 16 years of age without the express approval of their parents, guardians or police. 

Chandler, of Lupton Close, Glasshouses, was also placed on the sex-offenders’ register for life.

Knaresborough man jailed for historic sexual abuse

*Warning — this article contains details some readers may find disturbing.

A 64-year-old man has been jailed for three years for the sexual abuse of a young girl in the 1970s and 80s.

David Weatherald, from Knaresborough, waged what amounted to a campaign of sexual abuse of the girl in Harrogate when he was in his 20s.

The victim, now middle-aged, was so traumatised by the abuse she tried to take her own life, York Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Kitty Colley said that despite the offences happening so long ago, Weatherald’s previous conviction for possessing indecent images of children in 2019 showed that he had “harboured a (sexual) interest in young children” for many years. 

The victim of the sexual abuse, which occurred about 40 years ago, did not make disclosures to police until September 2019 after an article appeared in the press about Weatherald’s conviction for possessing indecent images.

Ms Colley said:

“She herself contacted police and reported (that) she had been sexually abused by him as a child.

“She said that having read about him in the paper, she (decided to) come forward.” 

The victim, who was just six years old when the abuse began in the 1970s, was sexually assaulted on “many” occasions.

Weatherald, who was 19 or 20 years’ old when it began, vehemently denied the allegations following his arrest and told police they were “all lies”.

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He was initially charged with seven counts of sexual offences but denied them and the case was listed for trial in December last year, but Weatherald ultimately admitted five of those charges, including four counts of indecent assault and one of indecency with a child under 14 years of age. He appeared for sentence on Thursday.

Torrid childhood

The court heard that the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had endured a torrid childhood.

Ms Colley said:

“She said she felt ashamed about what (Weatherald) did to her.”

The victim said the abuse had affected her “very deeply” all her adult life.

She said that at the time of the abuse she had “minimal” understanding of what was happening to her and she was now “reliving the trauma through this case”.

She said the abuse made her “feel like I was not worth anything” and resulted in a suicide attempt. 

She added:

“The experiences I have gone through left me physically and mentally shattered.

“My life was stolen from me when I was six years of age and there is nothing that will get those years back.”

Ms Colley said that Weatherald’s previous conviction for possessing indecent images included 11 videos rated Category A – the worst kind – featuring “very young children, some aged seven”. The images included penetrative sexual activity with children.

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Weatherald, of Fossdale Close, was given a 10-month suspended prison sentence and made subject to a 10-year sexual-harm prevention order for those offences in 2019. 

Three-year sentence

Nick Cartmell, mitigating, said Weatherald was deeply remorseful and at the time of the sexual abuse he too was an “isolated, immature” young man who had his own difficulties.

Judge Sean Morris, the Recorder of York, told Weatherald: 

“This offending came to light as a result of you possessing, or looking at, the most dreadful illegal images of children. 

“It’s quite clear that this offending…shows that your interest in children harks back some considerable time.”

Weatherald will serve half of the three-year sentence behind bars before being released on prison licence. 

Mr Morris added a further prohibition to Weatherald’s sexual-harm prevention order which bans him having any advertent contact with children under 16 years of age.  

Ex-Harrogate hospital IT worker who downloaded 750,000 indecent images of children jailed again

Warning: some readers may find aspects of this article distressing

A former Harrogate hospital IT worker was labelled a danger to children as he was jailed yet again for downloading images of children.

Martin Richard Shepherd, 50, from Harrogate, was already under lifetime curbs on his internet use after being convicted of downloading three-quarters of a million indecent images of children in 2017.

But when police officers paid him an impromptu visit in September 2020, they found he had been deleting “vast” amounts of data on his computer, York Crown Court heard.

Analysis of his devices revealed that the computer buff had downloaded hundreds more images – including videos featuring child rape – while on prison licence and subject to a lifetime sexual-harm prevention order to stop him trawling the web for illicit material.

Shepherd, who had “curated” the images according to their levels of depravity, told officers he found “irresistible” the urge to view images of children being sexually abused.

He admitted possessing indecent images and appeared for sentence via video link on Thursday.

Jailed for five years in 2017

The court heard he was working as an IT expert at Harrogate District Hospital at the time of his original offences in 2016, when police found about 750,000 indecent images of children on his computer devices.

This led to a five-year jail sentence in 2017 for possessing and distributing indecent images, as well as two counts of voyeurism and computer misuse in relation to his work at the hospital.

Shepherd, described as a loner, served half of that sentence behind bars before being released on prison licence in July 2019.

In September 2020, police monitoring officers made an unannounced visit to his home in Harrogate and found he had been deleting a “vast amount” of data from an Android tablet, in breach of the sexual-harm prevention order. This resulted in a further two-year jail sentence in January last year for four breaches of the order.

However, no illegal images were found at the time and it was not until later that a further police investigation unearthed yet more images of children which Shepherd had stored on five memory sticks.

Deleting images

Prosecutor Jonathan Foy said that Shepherd, formerly of Chatsworth Grove, had started deleting the images – about 125 gigabytes in total – within six months of being released from prison. Mr Foy said:

“When interviewed, he admitted that as soon as he was released from custody, his temptation to (view) pornographic images of children was something he found irresistible.”

Analysis of the devices revealed that Shepherd had downloaded hundreds of indecent images of all levels of seriousness, including 148 photos and videos rated Category A – the worst kind of such material. They included images of girls aged between four and 11 years of age being raped by adult men. One of the children in the depraved movie clips was unconscious.

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Mr Foy said:

“He troubles himself not only to obtain (the indecent images), but to separately save them (on USB sticks), curate them (in terms of) highest quality”

There were a “large number” of young victims featured in the scenes.

Downloading indecent images since 2002

The court heard that Shepherd, who worked in the hospital’s IT department for 22 years, had been downloading indecent images of children since 2002, but his computer skills enabled him to encrypt the huge stash of material and avoid detection for 14 years.

In 2016, police cyber-crime detectives finally snared him and found that he had amassed about three-quarters of a million indecent images of children.

They found a “massive library collection” of images featuring the serious sexual abuse of “very young” children including 12-month-old babies and youngsters who had been drugged or plied with alcohol.

Shepherd had painstakingly catalogued the images in 22 encrypted volumes and used an “extremely-complex” system of passwords to hide them. He also distributed about 20 depraved videos on a paedophilic file-sharing site.

His previous conviction for voyeurism related to two young women whom he secretly filmed getting undressed and walking around naked at a property in Harrogate after setting up covert video equipment. Those offences occurred between 2005 and 2012.

The previous offence of computer misuse, or gaining unauthorised access to private computer files, occurred at Harrogate District Hospital where Shepherd, who was working in the IT department, had somehow “abstracted” photos from a family computer of a young girl in her underwear, bikini and school uniform.

Resigned from hospital in 2016

Ashleigh Metcalfe, mitigating, said Shepherd had been on custodial remand for over a year and had been working in Hull Prison’s upholstery department.

However, a probation report noted that since being forced to resign from his hospital job in 2016 following his arrest for the original offences, Shepherd had spent much of his time searching for indecent images of children.

Judge Simon Hickey said the discovery of even more indecent images “reinforced” his opinion that Shepherd was a dangerous offender “and that he will simply continue to reoffend”.

He said he had noted the “extremely young” ages of the children featuring in the sordid videos.

He told Shepherd:

“You admitted (to police) that you can’t stop yourself finding children of this age irresistible. You were downloading a vast amount of material. The children depicted are clearly vulnerable and visibly distressed.”

Shepherd, described as intelligent, was jailed for 12 months. He will be released from jail halfway through that sentence but will then have to serve an extended two-year period on prison licence.

Mr Hickey also added 10 new prohibitions to the sexual-harm prevention order for the protection of the public, namely young girls. Shepherd will remain on the sex-offenders’ register for life.

Man denies murder at flat on Harrogate’s Mayfield Grove

A man has denied murder following the death of a 41-year-old man in Harrogate.

Vitalijus Koreiva, 36, is accused of murdering Gracijus Balciauskas on December 20 last year. Mr Balciauskas’s body was found at a flat in Mayfield Grove at about 11.30pm.  

Koreiva, of Mayfield Grove, appeared at Leeds Crown Court via video link today when he pleaded not guilty to the allegation. 

A second murder suspect, 38-year-old Jaroslaw Rutowicz, of no fixed address, has yet to enter a plea to the charge. 

Judge Geoffrey Marson QC adjourned the case for a trial on June 20. It is expected to last 10 days. Koreiva and Rutowicz were remanded in custody.

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Drug pushers jailed after £140,000 cannabis seizure in Boroughbridge

Two drug pushers who were caught with 14 kilos of cannabis worth £140,000 have been jailed for two years.

Silvio Kondi, 30, and Flamur Saliasi, 45, were travelling in a Mercedes E-Class which was stopped on the A1(M) at Boroughbridge on September 30 last year, York Crown Court heard.

A search of the vehicle revealed a huge cannabis stash with an estimated street value of £140,000 and about £1,300 cash.

Kondi, from Leeds, and Saliasi were charged with possessing a Class B drug with intent to supply.

They admitted the offences but on the basis that they were only couriers. This was rejected by the prosecution at the plea hearing in October and the case was adjourned for a Newton hearing, or trial of issue, today (Tuesday, February 8).

However, the case proceeded straight to sentence after the prosecution and defence counsel agreed that Kondi and Saliasi’s role in the drugs racket was more likely to be “significant” rather than “leading”.

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The prosecution contended that both men had close ties to the “original source” of the supply chain and therefore played a “significant” role.

Annie Richardson, for the Crown, said the Mercedes was stopped in the middle of the afternoon but only for a routine check.

She added: 

“Police found various items including vacuum packs of cannabis, uncounted cash and mobile telephones.”

There were 14 vacuum packs weighing one kilo each. A drug expert estimated the total street value to be £140,000.

Albanian interpreter

The cash found included £1,186 in pounds sterling, just over £111 in Euros and small amounts of Macedonian, Albanian and Czech currency. 

The two men were hauled in for questioning but refused to answer police questions. They appeared for sentence on Tuesday accompanied by an Albanian interpreter. 

Robert Mochrie, for Kondi, asked the judge to take account of his client’s timely guilty plea.

Kelleigh Lodge, for Saliasi, said her client had only arrived in the UK last year – just months before his arrest. 

Since then, his wife had returned to their native Albania and Saliasi was “extremely keen” to join her once he had been released from prison.

Ms Lodge said Saliasi had already signed forms with immigration authorities for his deportation.

Kondi, of Tong Road, and Saliasi, of no fixed address, were each jailed for two years. They will serve half of that sentence behind bars before being released on prison licence. 

Thief jailed after ramming BMW to steal £7k caravan in Masham

A prolific thief has been jailed for stealing a £7,000 caravan in Masham after ramming the owner’s BMW out of the way.

Aaron Drummond, 23, was in a Toyota bearing false plates which was smashed into the BMW to shunt it out of the way of the caravan parked in a yard on Leyburn Road in the town.

Drummond and another man got out of the Toyota and smashed the front windscreen to get to the handbrake which they released, prosecutor Brooke Morrison told York Crown Court.

The thieves tried to push the BMW away from the Sterling Cullen Europa caravan and when this didn’t work, they got back inside the Toyota and rammed the car out of the way.

Ms Morrison said:

“They then hitched the caravan to their own vehicle and drove from the scene.”

The owner, who was named in court, was driving past his property at about 9.15pm on September 19, 2020, when he saw his BMW parked at a “strange angle” in the yard. Upon closer inspection, he noticed the front window had been smashed and a dent to the vehicle. The caravan had disappeared.

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The theft was captured on CCTV and the Toyota and caravan were later spotted on Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras. Police identified Drummond from the footage and he was subsequently arrested.

Drummond – whose last known address was Sadberge Road, Stockton-on-Tees – refused to answer police questions but ultimately admitted stealing the caravan and damaging the BMW. He appeared for sentence via video link on Monday after being recalled to prison.

Breach of suspended sentences

Ms Morrison said the offences put Drummond in breach of two suspended prison sentences – one imposed in April 2020 for making off without payment and driving while disqualified, and another in May of that year for aggravated vehicle-taking and driving while disqualified again.

In November 2020, he was jailed for over two years at Teesside Crown Court for a plethora of offences including six burglaries, going equipped, dangerous driving, aggravated vehicle-taking, criminal damage and driving while disqualified.  

Drummond’s long criminal history included 18 previous convictions for 69 offences – 20 of them for theft and kindred.

Kelleigh Lodge, for Drummond, said the father-of-one had mental-health problems at the time of his crime spree and was taking unprescribed tablets.

Judge Deborah Sherwin said it was obvious there had been a “fair degree of planning” to the caravan raid and that Drummond and his cohort had driven from their home area to Masham on false plates.

Jailing Drummond for 18 months, she told him:

“You have offended over many years.”

Drummond will serve half of that sentence behind bars before being released on prison licence. 

Jail for drug dealers who boasted of Harrogate street earnings

Two drug dealers who bragged they were making so much money they would soon need a “counting machine” have been jailed for a combined four years.

Notorious thug Sirus Alexander, 21, and Robert Varela, 26, immersed themselves in the “dark world” of the Harrogate narcotics trade in which money and hard drugs were so easy to come by that they treated four-figure profits as “minor” financial gains, York Crown Court heard.

They were finally caught thanks to eagle-eyed security staff and Harrogate Borough Council’s CCTV operators who spotted them engaging in a shady transaction in a red Audi with two “unknown men” behind an Early Learning Centre in the town centre, said prosecutor Michael Cahill.

Alexander and Varela scuttled off to a nearby Travelodge where they stashed over 60 wraps of heroin and cocaine in their room.

Police turned up at the hotel just after midnight, but Alexander and Varela had vanished.

A search of the room revealed a major cocaine and heroin stash worth about £2,575 — as well as a machete and digital weighing scales.

At about 4am the following morning, police received another call from CCTV operators who spotted the pair going into Asda in the town centre.

Officers swooped on the supermarket and arrested the two men. Varela was found with a large hunting knife in his jacket and about £300 cash. Alexander threw his mobile phone underneath a car just before his arrest.

Varela, formerly of Harrogate but lately of Bradford, and Alexander, from Elland, each admitted two counts of supplying a Class A drug with intent to supply. Varela also admitted carrying a blade.

£1,200 for cocaine a ‘minor’ amount

They appeared for sentence on Tuesday but only Varela was in the dock. Alexander appeared via video link from Hull Prison where he is currently serving a 10-year jail sentence for robbery and wounding following a stabbing incident in Harrogate just two months after he was arrested for the drug offences.

Mr Cahill said that security guards at the Early Learning Centre spotted the pair and the two unidentified men on the afternoon of April 23, 2019 in what was patently a drug transaction.

Alexander’s phone showed he had been dealing since 2017. It appeared that Varela had only been dealing in the days before his arrest.

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In one of the messages on their phones, they bragged that £1,200 – the “going rate” for an ounce of cocaine” – was a “minor” amount and that “we can smash this thing and that 46 (drug wraps) went in one hour”.

In another exchange, they boasted that they were “making so much money we are (going to) need a counting machine”.

Laced drink with bleach

Both men had previous convictions but it was Alexander whose criminal record was the most “worrying”.

He had previous convictions for violence, possessing a knife, racially aggravated harassment and vehicle theft, and one for administering poison in 2016, when he laced someone’s drink with bleach.

By far the most serious of his 26 previous offences was the incident in June 2019 when he robbed three men at knifepoint in Harrogate town centre while wearing a skull mask.

Alexander stabbed two of the victims in the thigh with a carving knife after ambushing them in Harrogate town centre. He told the “terrified” men they were “going to die” and ordered them to empty their pockets.

Alexander, who was a heavy cocaine user and fan of violent video games, was jailed for 10 years and nine months in February 2020 after he admitted two counts of robbery and two of wounding with intent.

The victims had been making their way home from a night out when Alexander pounced near the Asda store on the corner of Mayfield Grove and Strawberry Dale.

He took some cash, tobacco and a rucksack containing items including a mobile phone after slashing out with the large kitchen knife. The victims suffered “gaping” wounds and deep psychological harm.

Branded with hot knife

Harry Crowson, for Alexander, said his client still had another three years to serve of the 10-year jail sentence for the robberies.

He said that Alexander, who had spent his entire childhood in care, had been exploited by county lines drug bosses following a traumatic upbringing.

Christopher Haddock, for Varela, said his client had started dealing to feed his “expensive” drug habit and pay off debts to his suppliers.

He said that in October last year, Varela was hospitalised after his drug overlords “branded” him with a hot knife. Varela refused to disclose the identity of these men.

Judge Simon Hickey told the defendants:

“You know dealing in Class A drugs on our streets brings misery, degradation and death. You were both effectively street dealers in the middle of Harrogate.”

Alexander, of The Grove, Idle, was jailed for two years. He will serve half of that sentence behind bars, consecutive to the jail term he is already serving.

Varela, of Huddersfield Road, Elland, was jailed for two years and three months.