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12
Mar 2024
Barman at Ripon's South Lodge jailed for dealing cocaine
A barman at a well-known pub in Ripon has been jailed for over three years for dealing cocaine and cannabis from his living quarters.
Jay Goodall, 29, a heavily convicted felon, was arrested at the South Lodge pub on Harrogate Road after police searched his bedroom and found about £3,000 of cocaine, cannabis and benzocaine, York Crown Court heard.
Police found all manner of drug paraphernalia inside his room including digital weighing scales – which Goodall claimed were for baking cakes.
He was brought in for questioning and initially claimed the drugs were for personal use.
Prosecutor Kelly Clarke said that would be impossible because it would have meant he had a £1,750-a-week drug habit on a £400 weekly wage.
Goodall was charged with possessing cocaine and cannabis with intent to supply and admitted both offences. He appeared for sentence via video link today after being remanded in custody.
Ms Clarke said police executed the search warrant at South Lodge on February 9 after receiving a tip-off that someone was potentially dealing drugs at the hotel owing to a “strong smell of cannabis” emanating from the staff quarters.
Police at the scene on February 9.
An officer turned up at the newly refurbished pub - one of the largest and most prominent in the area - as Goodall parked his vehicle in the car park. He was detained in the communal bar area.
Ms Clarke said police noted a “strong smell of cannabis (coming) from the living quarters upstairs”.
Officers followed the smell to Goodall’s bedroom where they found a “large quantity” of suspected cocaine in various snap bags and boxes.
They also found two plastic boxes and a black safe full of dealer bags. One of the boxes contained a pestle, used for grinding substances, on which police found “remnants of Class A drugs”.
They also found a large bag containing 330 grammes of benzocaine, a cutting agent used to bulk up drugs which can also be used as a painkiller.
Inside Goodall’s wardrobe was a black balaclava, two zip bags full of cannabis, the digital weighing scales and a box for an air pistol, although no weapon was found inside.
Ms Clarke said:
The estimated value of the drugs stash, including the benzocaine, was about £3,000.
Police also seized two mobile phones – one from inside a rucksack in the wardrobe and one from Goodall’s car – but Goodall failed to provide officers with the PIN numbers to enable them to analyse his messages.
Racial offences
The prosecution outlined Goodall’s criminal record which included several convictions for racially aggravated harassment and criminal damage, as well as assaulting an emergency worker and a previous conviction for dealing cannabis.
Other previous convictions included driving while unfit through drink or drugs, battery and sending malicious communications.
He received a nine-month suspended prison sentence for possession with intent to supply cannabis in Leeds in 2021.
In July last year he received another suspended jail sentence for yet more racially aggravated offences. The new offences in Ripon put him in breach of that 16-week suspended prison term.
Goodall’s solicitor advocate Stephen Smithson said the former barman was a drug addict but “there’s no suggestion (that he had conducted) this criminality for the sake of his own addiction”.
Judge Sean Morris, the Recorder of York, told Goodall:
He told Goodall he had a “bad record for unpleasant” offences including ones with a racial undertone.
Goodall was jailed for three years and seven months for possession with intent to supply cocaine and breaching the suspended sentence. There was no separate penalty for dealing cannabis.
Read more:
- Man admits supplying cocaine after police raid at Ripon pub
- Two arrested following drugs bust at Ripon’s South Lodge
- Cannabis farm with nearly 500 plants found in Harrogate
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