Drug dealer jailed for second time for supplying cocaine in Harrogate

A drug dealer has been jailed for supplying cocaine in Harrogate for the second time in the space of a year.

Robert Luke Varela, 27, was caught “bang at it” after police spotted him lurking suspiciously on Franklin Road, Harrogate.

Prosecutor Camille Morland told York Crown Court that Varela – who once bragged he would “need a counting machine” due to the vast profits he was making from his illicit trade – took his hands out of his pockets as police drove past and threw a bag of crack cocaine to the ground.

She said that when officers went to speak to him, they found the bag, containing 11 wraps of high-purity crack cocaine, dumped on the pavement.   

They seized an iPhone from Varela on which WhatsApp messages showed he had been dealing crack cocaine in the three months preceding his arrest in February 2021.

Varela, formerly of Harrogate, was charged with possessing crack cocaine with intent to supply and ultimately admitted the offence. He appeared for sentence via video link today.

Ms Morland said that in February 2022, Varela was jailed for two years and three months for possessing heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply in 2019. 

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That sentence was imposed without Varela or the prosecuting authorities informing the then sentencing judge that he had been quizzed about the new matter a year earlier. 

He was arrested for the 2019 offences after security staff and Harrogate Borough Council’s CCTV operators spotted Varela and his notorious sidekick Sirus Alexander, then aged 21 and from Idle, Bradford, engaged in a transaction in a red Audi with two “unknown men” behind an Early Learning Centre in Harrogate.

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, but the two men 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.

In the early hours of 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.

17 previous offences

Varela, who was living in Elland before being jailed, had 17 previous offences on his record including assault, possessing cocaine and carrying a blade. He was jailed for the latter offence in August 2021.

Defence barrister Lydia Pearce said Varela should have been sentenced for all the dealing offences in February last year.

She said that Varela was twice interviewed about the previous dealing matters in 2019 but carried on offending until his arrest in Harrogate in February 2021.

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

“This case has come back to bite you, but that’s your fault, as well as the prosecution’s fault.”

He said that if Varela had been facing this new offence alone, he would have been looking at a jail sentence measured in years, but that he should have been sentenced for all matters over a year ago, which meant he would receive a reduced sentence.

The judge said that the new offence was part and parcel of Varela’s overall offending and “showed you were a determined drug dealer bang at it”.

Varela, who was due to be released from his existing prison sentence in December this year, was handed a new 12-month jail sentence which will run consecutively and extend his period behind bars by a further six months. 

Harrogate sex offender sentenced to two more years in prison

A sexual predator has been jailed again for sexually assaulting a very young girl at a property in Harrogate.

Steven Anthony Jennings, 52, was already serving a 15-year jail sentence for similar offences against two other girls.

Now he’s been handed a further two years’ prison time for the new offences which pre-dated the old ones, but only came to light relatively recently when the victim went to police more than a decade after they occurred.

Daniel Penman, prosecuting at York Crown Court, said that Jennings, who was in his early 30s at the time, sexually assaulted the girl twice between 2005 and 2007.

The girl said she “froze” but such was her young age she didn’t think anything wrong had occurred at the time. She didn’t report the matters at the time and Jennings “got on with life as normal”.

Mr Penman added:

“It took her until 2019 until she felt able to [tell] her partner about these offences and, through that, felt able to report this to police.”

Jennings, who was living in Harrogate before he was given the 15-year sentence at Teesside Crown Court in 2017, was questioned about the offences at Moorlands Prison in Doncaster in May last year when he was coming to the end of his existing jail term.

He initially denied the allegations but ultimately admitted two counts of sexually assaulting a child under 13 years of age. A third allegation was dropped by the prosecution and allowed to lie on court file.

He appeared for sentence today knowing a consecutive jail sentence was all but inevitable.

‘Lost all innocence’

In a statement read out in court, the victim said Jennings’s “cruel” offences had affected her “mentally, physically and emotionally for years”.

She said her self-esteem and mental health were so badly affected that by her mid-teens she was “ready to die”.

She said she used to “cry myself to sleep every night” following the abuse and that she had “lost all innocence”.

Jennings was jailed in October 2017 for the offences against the two other girls, which occurred between about 2008 and 2011. 

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The sentence was imposed after Jennings admitting rape and sexual activity with a child in relation to one of the victims, and one count of indecent assault against the other girl. 

The victims were two pre-teenage girls, who were abused by Jennings when he was in his mid-to-late 30s.

He sexually assaulted one of the girls outdoors while he was in a relationship with a woman, said Mr Penman.

Jennings plied the other victim with alcopops and played games “like truth or dare” with her. He ultimately raped the girl, who was too young to consent to sex, on “numerous occasions”.

Defence barrister Hussain Rukhshanda said Jennings was remorseful for his actions.

Judge Simon Hickey said the sexual abuse of the new victim had had a “horrendous” effect on her and that her impact statement made for “sobering reading”.

He told Jennings: 

“She said that’s a burden she carried from a young age due to your selfish actions.”

Jennings was jailed for two years and placed on the sex-offenders’ register for a further 10 years. 

He was also made subject to a sexual harm prevention order, which will run for an indefinite period, to limit his contact with under-age girls. It also bans him from contacting any of the three victims. 

Beckwithshaw attempted murder accused ‘strung bow and arrow’ before attack

A Beckwithshaw man accused of trying to kill two young children had strung a bow-and-arrow in the hours leading up to the attacks, a court heard.

The weapon was discovered at his home, along with several knives, following the horrific incident on June 20 last year.

The accused, who is in his 40s, appeared at Leeds Crown Court today for the second week of his trial. He is accused of attempting to murder both children, one of whom had his throat slit.

In her closing speech this afternoon, defence barrister Kama Louise Melly said the discovery of the weapons was indicative of the accused’s paranoia and deteriorating mental health.

Ms Melly said it was clear that her client’s “thought processes” were “completely consumed” by a delusional belief that he was under threat and that people were “out to get him”.

She said he was “genuinely paranoid about a significant, far-ranging risk to his life”.

Me Melly added that in the past, her client had sought help from his doctor about his paranoia, although there was no diagnosis of paranoid psychosis.

She said the defendant had once asked for a brain scan because he was “concerned his brain was not working right”. He was convinced his house and car had been bugged and that his phone had been hacked. 

Ms Melly said the accused had long-standing “paranoid beliefs” including that people were following him in his car. 

She said the fact that her client had strung a bow-and-arrow and left it lying around his house, along with several knives, suggested he was “utterly preoccupied” with his delusional beliefs that people were out to get him and were conspiring against him. 

Ms Melly said the evidence suggested it was “absolutely plain” that the defendant had no intention to kill the children.

‘Like a horror film’

Earlier in the trial, the jury heard harrowing evidence about how one of the children had his throat cut by the accused who also allegedly tried to kill a young girl. 

The accused is alleged to have told them “this needs to happen”, before attacking them.

Two workmen went to the aid of the children, one of whom was holding his neck to stem the bleeding and the other who had blood on her shirt and was described as “hysterical”.

They said the scene resembled a “horror film” and that at first they thought it was a Halloween prank.

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They described the boy’s injuries as “horrific, like (in) a horror film”.

One of the named witnesses said:

“He had his throat cut open and I could see inside the cut.

“He had his hands across his throat. There was blood everywhere. He seemed in shock and really distraught.”

They called the emergency services and an ambulance took the children to hospital, where the boy, who suffered life-threatening injuries, was taken straight to an emergency operating theatre.

He suffered a “large neck laceration”, severed jugular veins and nerve and muscle damage, as well as damage to his Adam’s Apple. His neck wound was closed with deep sutures. 

He was expected to make a good recovery, but doctors said it was very likely he would continue to suffer from complications including scarring and nerve damage. 

‘Paranoia and drinking’

A female witness for the prosecution who knew the accused man said he had mental-health problems including bouts of paranoia and that his drinking made this worse. 

The accused is alleged to have slit the boy’s throat with a 10-inch serrated knife.

Prosecutor Laura Addy said police found numerous knives at the defendant’s home, as well as a home-made petrol incendiary device and a bottle of morphine on the kitchen table.  

Two psychiatrists who assessed him following his arrest deemed him fit to stand trial and said he was not insane.

The defendant admitted wounding the boy with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and attempting to cause the girl serious harm but denies two counts of attempted murder. 

The trial continues.

Harrogate police officer given suspended sentence for sex assault

A Harrogate police officer has been given a six-month suspended jail sentence for sexually assaulting a woman at a property in North Yorkshire. 

Joseph McCabe, 27, was found guilty of one count of sexual assault following a trial in February and today appeared for sentence at York Magistrates’ Court.

The court heard that McCabe had only been married six weeks when the incident occurred in 2021.

Prosecutor Richard Blackburn said that McCabe had picked the victim up and placed her on a bed as a “prelude to something else”.

The victim, who was not in a relationship with the policeman, “froze in fear” after the strapping officer “stroked” her on the arm and badgered her for sex.

Mr Blackburn said that when the victim rejected McCabe’s advances, he grabbed or “yanked” her hair and dragged her off the bed, before demanding she had sex with him.

He said that McCabe, a devout Roman Catholic who had drunk about seven pints that night, placed his hand on the woman’s inner thigh and on her back and then lifted her onto a bed, before lying next to her and staring at her. 

Mr Blackburn said:

“He took hold of her arm and began to stroke it.”

When the woman asked him what he was doing, McCabe, a police constable who likes to work out at the gym, made no reply.

Mr Blackburn said the woman was scared and made it clear she didn’t want to have sex.

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About 30 minutes later, McCabe started shouting, “Get into…bed now”, but she again spurned his advances. 

McCabe, who had been in his policing job since early 2020, later apologised for his behaviour, telling the woman he had “reverted back to being my teenage self” and had made an “ill-judged, romantic” advance. 

The woman, who can’t be named for legal reasons, later reported the incident to police.

McCabe, of Kingsley Park Road, Harrogate, denied that his behaviour was sexual despite “stupidly” trying to kiss the woman.

He was suspended by North Yorkshire Police pending the outcome of the trial and his policing career now lies in tatters following the guilty verdict.

The victim said McCabe picked her up and placed her on a bed and that “nothing was said, which I found quite creepy”.

She added:

“He laid on the bed next to me and then he took hold of my hand and (his hand) went up my arm in a stroking motion.”

She said McCabe was moving his hand towards an intimate part of her body, but no contact was made.

She pointed to the Crucifix that McCabe was wearing and said:

“Aren’t you meant to be religious? What are you doing?”

She then “felt my (hair) bun get pulled and I was ragged to the floor”.

She said she was “shouting and swearing” and telling him: “Don’t touch me.”

She added:

“I remember shaking a lot and I didn’t know what to do.

“I just froze in fear. I was in shock.”

She said that during the “horrible” incident, McCabe had “terrified” her and at one stage she feared she might be raped.

McCabe’s barrister Kevin Baumber read out character testimonies during the trial in which friends described him as a “hard-working, kind-natured individual” who took “great pride” in his work. 

His sports coach and best friend said McCabe was a “fun guy but has always been serious and sensible, someone I would go to in a crisis”.

‘No credible explanation’

District judge Tan Ikram said McCabe had given “no credible explanation as to why (the victim) would make up such a serious allegation”. 

Mr Ikram added:

“She was telling the truth about what happened that night, I’m sure of that.

“On the other hand, (you) were cautious in your answers (having had) plenty of time to think about it. You have elaborated to try to make innocent sense of what you did. I’m sure that your intentions throughout were sexual.”

He told McCabe: 

“She never consented (to sex) and you knew she didn’t.”

He said McCabe had shown “no remorse” for his behaviour.

The six-month jail sentence was suspended for two years and McCabe was placed on the sex-offenders’ register for seven years.

As part of the order, he must complete a 100-day alcohol-abstinence programme and up to 20 days of rehabilitation activity.

He must also take part in a 43-day sex-offending group-work programme and was made subject to a three-year restraining order which prohibits him contacting the victim. He was made to pay £620 prosecution costs and a £128 victim surcharge. 

Guilty plea ends trial into alleged Harrogate cocaine racket

The trial of three men allegedly involved in a cocaine-and-cannabis racket potentially worth millions has ended prematurely after one entered guilty pleas to conspiracy and two others were acquitted. 

Kole Lleshi, 54, of Hargrove Road, Harrogate, Allaman Tatariku, 25, from Hampshire, and Gavin Woodley, 44, of Ashfield Road, Harrogate, were on trial for their alleged part in the lucrative narcotics conspiracy run by an Albanian organised-crime group.

The trial began at Leeds Crown Court on Monday when the prosecution told the jury how “kilo blocks” of cannabis and cocaine were being transported between London and Harrogate where they were sold on the street.

However, on the second day of the trial, Kole Lleshi and Woodley, who both admitted involvement in the supply of Class A and B drugs but denied being part of the wider conspiracy, were acquitted of the more serious charge after the prosecution decided to offer no evidence against them.

Tatariku, of Penhale Road, Portsmouth, ultimately admitted two counts of conspiring to supply Class A and B drugs and will be sentenced on a date to be fixed. 

The gang’s ringleader, former Harrogate restaurant worker Ermal Biba, 38, is also due to be sentenced after already admitting his part in the mega-money drug plot, along with Kladji Lleshi, 23, of Kinloss Court, London, and Adam Sarkowski, 41, formerly of Wedderburn Close, Harrogate. 

Dritan Lleshaj, 53, formerly of Spring Mount, Harrogate, had already been jailed and deported for possession with intent to supply cocaine and cannabis. 

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Biba, of Trafalgar Court, Harrogate, admitted conspiring to supply cocaine and cannabis between June 2019 and May 2022.

Prosecutor Katherine Robinson said the conspirators, mostly Albanian nationals, were also involved in a £1.5 million cannabis farm in Rochdale which was connected to the Harrogate operation.

Biba was the lynchpin between two distinct conspiracies in which, after his first foot soldiers were arrested, he recruited others, incliuding Kladji Lleshi, Tatariku, Woodley and Sarkowski. 

Biba was released under investigation following his initial arrest in May 2020 for the first conspiracy, which involved Kole Lleshi and Dritan Lleshaj, but continued operating “dealer lines” in Harrogate run by an “organised-crime group”.

Kole Lleshi admitted his part in the drug operation by transporting a kilo of cocaine from London to Harrogate in September 2019. 

However, he denied being involved in the wider conspiracy.   

Harrogate ‘drug run’

In September 2019, Biba arranged a “drug run” which involved Kole Lleshi driving to London and bringing back Class A drugs to Harrogate.

Biba was in contact with an unknown man in London from whom Lleshi was ostensibly to collect the drugs. A few weeks later, Biba sent Kole Lleshi a text message saying: “We go tomorrow.”

The following day, Lleshi set off for London again in a Kia vehicle, ostensibly for a drug pick-up, and returned to Yorkshire where he was stopped by police on the A1 near Doncaster. During a search of his car, officers found a kilo block of high-purity cocaine in a plastic bag. The drugs had a “wholesale” value of £25,000.

The following day, Lleshaj was arrested after meeting Biba in a Harrogate restaurant. Lleshaj was found with £419 in cash and five wraps of cocaine. 

He told police he was homeless, but they found the keys to his house in Spring Mount and searched it. They found “various quantities” of cocaine and about £2,000 cash.

Woodley played the role of “facilitator” by allowing the gang to supply drugs from his rented house in Ashfield Road, where they found 264g of high-purity cocaine and two large “vacuum packages” of cannabis worth up to £11,000.

Biba, Lleshaj, Tatariku and Kladji Leshi were said to be regular visitors to this property where police also found “debt lists”, cash, digital weighing scales and hydroponic equipment.

Woodley was subsequently arrested at his then home in Fairfax Avenue, Harrogate, where police found a small amount of cocaine and cannabis and a torch-like stun gun. 

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Ms Robinson said Greater Manchester Police raided an industrial unit in Rochdale in March last year when they arrested two Albanian men after they found a large cannabis grow on an “industrial” scale. 

Those two men admitted cultivating cannabis at the factory which had a harvest of 144 kilos with an estimated “street value” of £1.5 million.

Ms Robinson said:

“(Police) surveillance had been carried out and members of the organised crime group in Harrogate regularly visited this industrial estate in Rochdale.

“ANPR (cameras) showed Mr Biba’s vehicle travelling in that direction and Kladji Lleshi and Allaman Tatariku’s phones showed they travelled down the M62 from Harrogate to Rochdale.”

Biba, Kladji Lleshi and Sarkowski all admitted their part in that cannabis conspiracy. 

Kole Lleshi admitted possessing cocaine with intent to supply and had already served a 40-month prison sentence for that, but denied having knowledge of the wider conspiracy, claiming he was “simply on an errand” to collect something from London in September 2019 but that he didn’t know what that was. 

Woodley, who was said to have worked in Harrogate restaurants with Biba, admitted possessing a prohibited weapon, namely the stun gun, and allowing his premises to be used for the supply of drugs, but was acquitted of all other charges including conspiracy in the wider drug plot. 

He was given a 23-week suspended prison sentence.

Biba, Sarkowski, Kladji Lleshi and now Tatariku will be sentenced at a later date.

Beckwithshaw attempted murder accused told boy ‘this needs to happen’

Warning: this article contains information some people may find upsetting.

A man accused of slitting a boy’s throat told the youngster “this needs to happen” before cutting his neck, a trial has heard.

The man from Beckwithshaw tried to do the same to a young girl who was “hysterical” and had blood on her shirt and cuts on her fingers, a jury at Leeds Crown Court heard.

The accused, who is in his 40s, is charged with two counts of attempted murder. 

He appeared for the second day of his trial yesterday when jurors heard harrowing testimony from two workmen who found the children, one of whom had a gaping neck wound and the other bloodied fingers.

One of the workmen said the seriously injured boy’s neck wound was so wide “it was like a Cheshire- cat smile”.

His colleague said he initially thought it was a “Halloween prank” at first but he “quickly realised it wasn’t” when he saw the extent of the boy’s injury.

The witness said:

“His injuries were horrific, like a horror film.

“He had his throat cut open and I could see inside the cut. He had his hands across his throat. There was blood everywhere.

“He seemed in shock and really distraught. I couldn’t believe what was happening; it was struggling to register with me and I was also in shock.

“I was standing on the street. I was worried for my own safety.”

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The workman called to his colleague to get something to stem the child’s bleeding and he wrapped a hoodie around the boy’s neck.

The witness called an ambulance and told them:

“I thought it needed police as well as it slowly started to sink in what had happened.

“I was really worried about the situation and wanted the emergency services to get there as quickly as possible.”

He said the young girl who was also bleeding was “very distraught and upset”.

Alleged victims ‘really distraught’

Police arrived, followed shortly afterwards by an ambulance crew. The children were put in the ambulance and taken to hospital.

The witness’ colleague, who was also named in court, said he heard “what seemed like a kid’s scream or shout”.

He said he saw the young boy holding his neck to stem the flow of blood.

He added:

“The wound looked really bad.

“It was like a Cheshire-cat smile and went wide across his neck and I could see inside the wound. I ran to get my hoodie. I put the hoodie on the boy’s cut and he held it there around his neck. 

“He was a bit teary before I put the hoodie on his neck but that seemed to calm him down a bit.”

He said he saw a young girl “with blood on her…top”.

He added:

“She was crying her eyes out; she was really distraught.”

She told the witness that the man who had cut the boy’s throat had also “tried to get at her as well”.

He added:

“She was obviously really scared and she was hysterical.

“I reassured her that he wouldn’t hurt her as I was there to protect her. I put my arm around the girl…to reassure her that she was safe now.”

He added:

“I felt so annoyed and shocked.

“I couldn’t believe what was happening. The little girl was hysterical. I put my arm around her.”

He said the children seemed “petrified” and that the girl told him she heard the man say “this needs to happen” before launching the alleged attack.

He said that the street seemed eerily quiet at the time and that he and his colleague were the only ones who went to help.

‘Paranoia and drinking’

A female witness for the prosecution who knew the accused man said he had mental health problems including bouts of paranoia and that his drinking made this worse. 

Prosecuting barrister Robert Stevenson alleged that the accused slit the boy’s throat with a 10-inch serrated knife during the incident in June last year.

Neither of the children can be named for legal reasons. 

The trial continues. 

Albanian crime group ran huge cocaine racket in Harrogate, court hears

An Albanian organised crime group ran a cocaine and cannabis racket in Harrogate potentially worth millions, a court heard.

The mega-money conspiracy involved “kilo blocks” of cocaine and cannabis being transported between London and Harrogate where the drugs were sold on the street, a jury at Leeds Crown Court was told yesterday.

Prosecutor Katherine Robinson said the conspirators, mostly Albanian nationals, were also thought to be involved in a £1.5 million cannabis farm in Rochdale which was connected to the Harrogate operation.

Yesterday, Kole Lleshi, 54, of Hargrove Road, Harrogate, Gavin Woodley, 44, of Ashfield Road, Harrogate and Allaman Tatariku, 25, of Penhale Road, Portsmouth appeared for the first day of their trial after they each denied playing a part in the wider conspiracy.

The gang’s ringleader, former Harrogate restaurant worker Ermal Biba, 38, had already admitted his part in the lucrative drug plot, along with Kladji Lleshi, 23, of Kinloss Court, London, Dritan Lleshaj, 53, formerly of Spring Mount, Harrogate, and Adam Sarkowski, 41, formerly of Wedderburn Close, Harrogate.

Biba, of Trafalgar Court, Harrogate, admitted conspiring to supply cocaine and cannabis between June 2019 and May 2022.

Ms Robinson said Biba was the lynchpin between two distinct conspiracies in which, after his first foot soldiers were arrested, he recruited three others, namely Kladji Lleshi, Tatariku, Woodley and Sarkowski.

She said the first conspiracy involved Biba, Kole Lleshi and Dritan Lleshaj, who had also admitted, and been jailed for, possession with intent to supply cocaine and cannabis. Lleshaj was deported to his homeland.

‘Dealer lines’

Biba was released under investigation following his initial arrest in May 2020 for the first conspiracy but then recruited another group of conspirators and continued operating “dealer lines” in Harrogate run by an “organised-crime group”, added the prosecuting barrister.

Kole Lleshi was arrested and admitted his part in the drug operation by transporting a kilo of cocaine from London to Harrogate in September 2019. However, he denied being involved in the wider conspiracy.

Ms Robinson said police surveillance officers had been tracking Biba, Lleshaj and Kole Lleshi during the first conspiracy in 2019.

They recorded Biba and Lleshaj “meeting regularly” and were monitoring their whereabouts when, in September 2019, Biba arranged a “drug run” which involved Kole Lleshi driving to London and bringing back Class A drugs to Harrogate.

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Biba was in contact with an unknown man in London from whom Lleshi was ostensibly to collect the drugs, added Ms Robinson.

A few weeks later, Biba sent Kole Lleshi a text message saying: “We go tomorrow.”

The following day, Lleshi set off for London again in a Kia vehicle, ostensibly for a drug pick-up, and returned to Yorkshire where he was stopped by police on the A1 near Doncaster. During a search of his car, officers found a kilo block of high-purity cocaine in a plastic bag wrapped in a sock. The drugs had a “wholesale” value of £25,000.

The following day, Lleshaj was arrested after meeting Biba in a Harrogate restaurant. Lleshaj was found with £419 in cash and five wraps of cocaine.

He told police he was homeless, but they found the keys to his house in Spring Mount and searched it. They found “various quantities” of cocaine and about £2,000 cash.

High-purity cocaine

She said Woodley played the role of “facilitator” in the conspiracy by allowing the gang to supply drugs from his rented house in Ashfield Road, where they found 264g of high-purity cocaine and two large “vacuum packages” of cannabis worth up to £11,000.

Biba, Lleshaj, Tatariku and Kladji Leshi were said to be regular visitors to this property where police also found “debt lists”, cash, digital weighing scales and hydroponic equipment for growing cannabis.

Woodley was subsequently arrested at his then home in Fairfax Avenue, Harrogate, where police found a small amount of cocaine and cannabis and a torch-like stun gun.

Ms Robinson said Greater Manchester Police raided an industrial unit in Rochdale in March last year when they arrested two Albanian men after they found a large cannabis grow on an “industrial” scale.

Those two men admitted cultivating cannabis at the factory which had an estimated harvest of 144 kilos with an estimated “street value” of £1.5 million. Ms Robinson added:

“(Police) surveillance had been carried out and members of the organised crime group in Harrogate regularly visited this industrial estate in Rochdale.

“ANPR (cameras) showed Mr Biba’s vehicle travelling in that direction and Kladji Lleshi and Allaman Tatariku’s phones showed they travelled down the M62 from Harrogate to Rochdale.”

Woodley’s red Transit van also made journeys to Rochdale, said Ms Robinson.

Biba, Kladji Lleshi and Sarkowski all admitted their part in that cannabis conspiracy. Tatariku said he was involved in the supply of cocaine and cannabis but that he was not involved in a conspiracy with other people.

Woodley said although he was the tenant at the Ashfield Road property, he “couldn’t remember” the name of the landlord and “knew nothing” about the drugs found there. He denied playing any part in drug supply but said he knew Biba, with whom he worked in Harrogate restaurants.

The trial continues.

Trial begins into man charged with attempted murder in Beckwithshaw

The trial has begun of a man accused of the attempted murder of two children in a village near Harrogate.

The man, who is in his 40s, appeared at Leeds Crown Court yesterday when barrister Robert Stevenson opened the case for the prosecution.

The defendant, of Otley Road, Beckwithshaw, denies two counts of attempted murder. He was arrested following an incident on June 20 last year.

The alleged victims cannot be named for legal reasons.

The trial is expected to last five days. 

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‘If you swim with sharks, you get bitten,’ judge tells Harrogate cocaine dealer

A Harrogate drug pusher has been jailed for over two years after police caught him with over 50 grammes of high-purity cocaine.

Robert Marsh, 27, was stopped by a plain-clothed officer near his home on Burley Bank Road, Killinghall, in March last year. 

The officer found just over two ounces of cocaine inside Marsh’s car, prosecutor Adam Walker told York Crown Court.

Marsh was arrested and a subsequent search of his home revealed a cornucopia of drug items including weighing scales and dealer bags, the court heard.

Police also found cocaine inside a Tupperware box and £90 cash inside a cupboard, added Mr Walker.

He said the 55g of cocaine found inside the vehicle had a street value of up to £5,550. The value of the drugs and the period of time that Marsh had been dealing suggested he stood to make “significant” profits.

Police also seized two mobile phones from Marsh, which showed he had played an “operational or managerial” role in the drug racket. He had been giving people drugs “on tick” and was “managing a customer’s debt”.

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Defence barrister Susannah Proctor said Marsh, of Pinemoor Caravan Park, had never been in trouble before and was easily led due to his vulnerabilities. 

She said Marsh “struggles intellectually” and found himself hanging around people he met at house parties who had persuaded or coerced him to deal drugs for them, although the prosecution didn’t accept this claim.

Gambling debt

Ms Proctor added Marsh had a £7,000 gambling debt at the time and sold drugs to try to pay that off. He had struggled to pay his rent due to his gambling and moved into a caravan owned by his parents.

She added:

“He’s going to lose his home (and) he’s going to lose his job.”

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

“Prior to starting drug dealing you had been going to house parties and you realised there was more money to be made and got involved in drug dealing as a means to an end.

“That involved having money put into your bank account, giving people cocaine on tick and being caught by police (with) very-high-purity cocaine in your car, which on the street would be worth thousands of pounds.” 

He said Marsh was “not the most robust of characters” and now found himself in a “nightmare” of his own making. 

Mr Morris added:

“Cocaine is an absolute scourge.

“If you swim with sharks, you are going to get bitten.”

He said Marsh “had to go to prison because Class A dealers must go down, otherwise people might be tempted to earn a little extra cash like you”.

Marsh was handed a 30-month jail sentence of which he will serve half behind bars before being released on prison licence.

Harrogate man jailed for ‘humiliating and degrading’ sex attack

A man has been jailed for a “humiliating and degrading” sex attack on a young woman at a property in Harrogate.

Andrew Reekie, 33, left the woman “haunted” and an emotional wreck following the “absolutely disgusting” assault, York Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Shaun Dodds said the victim tried to kick Reekie off her during the assault and told him to “get off”. She was crying afterwards and told a friend what had happened.

Reekie told her she “wouldn’t dare ring the police” but she plucked up the courage to do so.

Reekie, of Bramham Drive, Jennyfields, was brought in for questioning two months after the attack but refused to answer police questions.

He was charged with sexual assault but denied the offence, only to plead guilty on the day of trial in January. He appeared for sentence yesterday.

The court heard he had previous convictions for serious violence, public disorder, acquisitive crime, possessing an offensive weapon, robbery, criminal damage and breaching court orders.

The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said that “life as I knew it came to an abrupt and sudden halt” following the sex attack. She added:

“I was paralysed (with fear) and completely helpless.”

She said she was “powerless” to stop Reekie and she had felt an inexplicable but “overwhelming shame” since the incident, adding:

“I felt completely alone and unable to trust anyone.

“The sound of his voice will (continue) to play in my head. It was like a knife in my guts.”

Nightmares and shame

She said that after the attack she “couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep or socialise”.

She had nightmares of other women being sexually assaulted and she was “more and more anxious that it was going to happen to somebody else”.

She said that even reporting the attack only “intensified the shame” and she developed serious mental-health problems.

It had affected her work and she had felt “traumatised” about the prospect of giving evidence in court.

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She said that before the incident she was a “young woman full of confidence, looking forward to a bright future”, but Reekie had “took my young spirit and crushed it”.

She had sought professional help for her problems but there were still days when “I can’t get out of bed because I’m too haunted by what happened”.  She added:

“I so desperately want my life back – the life (Reekie) took from me.”

‘A humiliating and degrading attack’

Defence barrister Andrew Stranex said Reekie was a father and had since found work.

Judge Sean Morris, the Recorder of York, described the incident as a “very nasty sexual assault”. He added:

“This was a humiliating and degrading attack.

“It has had a devastating effect on (the victim).”

He told Reekie:

“What you did was absolutely disgusting. You treated (the victim) like…your own personal pleasure ground.”

He said it was clear Reekie had refused to admit his guilt until the day of trial “in the hope that (the victim) wouldn’t have the courage to attend”.

Reekie was handed a 13-month jail sentence of which he will serve half behind bars before being released on prison licence. He was also ordered to sign on the sex-offenders’ register for 10 years.