A heroin and crack-cocaine dealer from Harrogate has been jailed for over three years.

Scott Bradley, 36, was arrested after patrol officers in Harrogate town centre came across a group of suspicious-looking men, York Crown Court heard.

The group were “huddled” around Bradley in Bower Street in what appeared to be a drug deal, said prosecutor Jemima Stephenson.

Bradley appeared to discard a plastic bag into the hedgerow behind him. He was quickly arrested and searched.

Extra police units were called in after one of the men in the “huddle” walked up to police to try to distract them.

Police seized a tin of white powder from Bradley who claimed it was bicarbonate of soda. They also seized two mobile phones, one of which was “constantly ringing”, some tablets, two sets of weighing scales and £180 cash.

Police searched the vicinity and found a snap bag containing “multiple” wraps of white and brown powder which turned out to be heroin and cocaine.

Bradley refused to reveal his address so his home couldn’t be searched. He was released under investigation following the drug bust on January 2 last year.

In January this year, police were called out to an address in Harrogate on an unrelated matter and Bradley answered the door. He was arrested again and found to be in possession of heroin.

On October 13, he was arrested again following a police response to another “unconnected” matter at a property in Harrogate.

Bradley became “twitchy” during the police search and tried to put his hand in his pocket, whereupon officers found some white rocks which turned out to be crack cocaine in a zip-sealed bag. They also found three wraps containing illicit substances and some weighing scales.

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The drugs found on Bradley during the searches following his initial arrest included heroin, cocaine, crack and cannabis.

Messages on his phones showed he had been dealing cocaine, crack and heroin between Christmas 2021 and his arrest in January last year.

He ultimately admitted three counts of possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply, possessing criminal cash, several counts of simple possession of Class A drugs and one count of possessing a Class B drug.

30 previous convictions

Bradley – formerly of Hargrove Road, Harrogate, but currently of no fixed address – appeared for sentence yesterday (Wednesday, December 20) after being remanded in custody.

The court heard he had 30 previous convictions for 60 offences including cannabis production. At the time of his latest drug offences, he was on a community order, imposed in January this year, for burglary.

Defence barrister Jade Bucklow said that Bradley had been using drugs for over 10 years, “progressing from cannabis and alcohol to heroin”.

She said he started dealing to pay off a “large” debt to his drug dealer after he lost his job.

Ms Bucklow said that his dealer had smashed the windows at his then family home and threatened to set the property ablaze if he didn’t pay off the debt.

Judge Sean Morris, the Recorder of York, told Bradley his offences were “pernicious” because drug-dealing “eats away at society” and led to so much associated crime and collateral damage for those who become addicted.

He added:

“You chose to deal drugs rather than obtain money by legitimate means and if you swim with sharks, you get bitten.”

Bradley was jailed for three-and-a-half years.

A violent drug dealer has been jailed for dealing cannabis – just two months after receiving a long prison term for stabbing a man in Harrogate with a knife.

William Boam, 23, from Harrogate, was driving a Citroen C3 which was stopped by police in Tadcaster in September 2021, York Crown Court heard.

They found six large plastic bags in the glove box containing over 27g of cannabis, along with two mobile phones and cash.

Boam was arrested and bailed, but in March 2022 the fire service was called out to his then home in Knaresborough after neighbours reported smoke coming from the property, said prosecutor Brooke Morrison.

She added:

“When [firefighters] attended they found no fire but found the defendant in his living room with large quantities of cannabis, so they called police.”

Officers arrived and found Boam in the living room surrounded by drug packaging and sheets of “branded stickers”, some of which he had placed on dealer bags. Ms Morrison said:

“Police found a further quantity of cannabis in tubs in the kitchen.”

They found a total 256g of cannabis in the property, worth an estimated £785 if sold on the street. The total amount of drugs seized from both the property and Boam’s vehicle was worth just under £1,000.

Boam was arrested again and, despite the amount of cannabis found at his home, told officers the drugs were for his own personal use.

Ms Morrison said that Boam appeared to be operating a one-man drug enterprise in which he packaged, distributed and sold the drugs on the street.

Boam had 13 previous convictions for 17 offences including drug supply in 2016, producing cannabis in 2017, arson and serious violence.

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In March this year he was jailed for two years and seven months for wounding causing grievous bodily harm, assault, carrying a knife and breaching a suspended prison sentence.

That incident, which can now be reported, occurred in October 2022, when Boam was still at large following his arrest for the drug matters and subject to a two-month suspended sentence for assaulting an emergency worker.

The victim was at his friend’s flat in Harrogate when Boam rang the doorbell asking to be let in. They refused but Boam threatened to kick the door, so they let him in.

He started shouting at the named victim who threw him out of the flat. About 20 minutes later, the two friends went to get some beer from a supermarket and, on their return, they bumped into Boam outside a homeless hostel in Bower Street where he was living at the time.

Boam punched and headbutted the victim’s friend and demanded his beer, then put his hand in his pocket “as if to indicate he was carrying a weapon”.

He then pulled a knife out and the victim’s friend ran away, chased by Boam. The victim came to his friend’s aid but as he tried to intervene, Boam “lunged” at him and thrust the knife into his stomach. He then “swung” the knife at him again and caught the victim on the arm, before running off.

The victim was taken to hospital where he had staples to close the stab wound to his stomach wall and three stitches to the wound on his upper arm.

Defence barrister Natalie Banks said that Boam had a “very difficult” upbringing and mental health problems.

Recorder Dapinder Singh KC jailed Boam for a further 16 months for the drug offences – a reduced sentence for reasons of “totality” because he was already serving a sentence of nearly three years for serious violence.

A Harrogate man has been sentenced to four years in prison after police officers stopped him during a drug deal on Knaresborough Road.

Ben Michael Hargreaves, of Dragon Avenue, was sentenced at York Crown Court yesterday for possession with intent to supply Class A drugs and being concerned in the supply of Class B drugs.

The 42-year-old’s sentencing comes after an 18-month investigation by North Yorkshire Police’s Harrogate Operation Expedite Team.

On September 9, 2020, officers spotted a man leaving a vehicle on Knaresborough Road in Harrogate and suspected he had purchased drugs from the driver.

The man was found to be in possession of cocaine. Officers then stopped the vehicle and detained the driver, Hargreaves.

Officers found a quantity of cocaine in the car and following a roadside drug wipe, Hargreaves tested positive for cannabis. He was arrested for driving under the influence of drugs and supplying drugs.

At his home address police found more cocaine and digital microscales. His phone was also examined which revealed a large amount of drugs related content and showed him organising the importation of drugs from the United States, as well as discussions about evading customs and border control.

The drugs seized from Hargreaves were valued at around £1,500 if sold at street level. As well as the four-year sentence he was disqualified from driving for five years.

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Detective Sergeant Peachman, from the North Yorkshire Police Harrogate Operation Expedite Team, said:

“Hargreaves has received a significant custodial sentence at York Crown Court and this sentence reflects the severity of his offending and the extent of it.

“He was found to be supplying a Class A drug on the streets of Harrogate and the impact of this offence should not be underestimated. The knock-on effects of increased criminality to fund drug addictions creates misery for those trapped in the cycle of addiction and those people who live in their communities. Hargreaves was financially profiting from that misery and exploiting the addictions of his customers for his own greed.”

A cocaine and ketamine dealer from Harrogate has been jailed for 18 months today.

Callum McLachlan, 20, sold cocaine and ketamine – a tranquilizer notorious for inducing a trance-like state in users – on the streets of Harrogate.

In June 2019 his enterprise fell apart when police pulled over a Fiat Punto travelling between Harrogate Hill and the A61.

McLachlan was the driver and his 17-year-old girlfriend – a former boarding-school pupil whom we have chosen not to name – was in the front passenger seat. A third named man was in the back seat, said prosecutor Imran Khan.

Officers, noting a strong smell of cannabis inside the vehicle, searched the car and found 7g of ketamine inside McLachlan’s wallet. His girlfriend and the male passenger had small amounts of cannabis.

A roadside test revealed he had been drug-driving for which he subsequently received an 18-month driving ban.

McLachlan was arrested and taken into custody, where police found 18 wraps of cocaine and ketamine.

Officers searched a flat in the Dragon Road area where McLachlan and his girlfriend had been living together and found more drugs and £3,585 cash – the proceeds of his dealing. 

McLachlan, lately of Woodfield Road, Harrogate, was charged with six separate drug charges, including possess cocaine with intent to supply, cannabis possession, possessing ketamine with intent to supply, supplying ketamine, possessing MDMA and possessing criminal cash.

He pleaded guilty to all charges on the basis that he had been dealing within his own social circle.

His girlfriend – was charged with being concerned in the supply of ketamine. She initially denied this but later pleaded guilty on the basis that she acted as a conduit for her boyfriend.

Ismael Uddin, for McLachlan, claimed his young client was no “master criminal” despite having criminal convictions.

Mr Uddin said:

“He was living in a predominantly middle-class area…where he started dabbling in drugs.”

“He didn’t have a hard upbringing; there was nothing wrong with his life. He simply fell into the lifestyle he was in.”

He pointed to McLachlan’s “glowing references” from “everybody” who knew him, and he was in gainful employment.

Susannah Proctor, mitigating for McLachlan’s then girlfriend, said she had been “achieving (educationally) at a very high standard” until she met McLachlan.

The female defendant, now 20, had been at boarding school until the age of 16 and then enrolled at a college where she met and fell in love with McLachlan.

She failed her college course because of her relationship with her co-accused but was now back in full-time education in London.

Ms Proctor said:

“She is now doing extremely well (educationally).

“Her parents were obviously devastated by this offending. She has disappointed them in ways she could never have expected.”

She said the woman had “closed her eyes to the reality” of what her boyfriend had been up to, and the resulting court case had been an “awful” experience for her family.

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Judge Sean Morris, the Recorder of York, said there was no getting away from the fact that McLachlan was a “supplier and street-dealer” and must face justice to serve as a warning to others that “drugs wreck lives”.

The judge told McLachlan he was “going to keep (the jail sentence) as low as I can”.

“You were (supplying drugs) so you could live in your flat with your girlfriend and it’s thanks to you that she is here (in court).”

McLachlan was jailed for 18 months, he will serve half of the term behind bars before being released on licence.

Dealers peddling Class A substances can normally expect sentences of at least four years.

Mr Morris told McLachlan’s female co-defendant: 

“Were it not for the influence of the person you fell in love with, you wouldn’t be here. You need to have a long, hard think about where you are going in life and who you choose to spend time with.”

She was given a 12-month community order with 200 hours’ unpaid work.

The judge postponed financial-confiscation proceedings until September, when McLachlan will be stripped of the cash he made from his dealing enterprise. 

A drug dealer who brought crack cocaine and heroin into Harrogate has been sent to jail for five years and four months.

Lee Bavin, 27, of Manchester Road in Bradford, appeared at York Crown Court for sentencing today.

North Yorkshire Police has had Bavin on its radar since 2018 as part of a county lines investigation.

Officers stopped Bavin on his way to Harrogate at the time and found 40 heroin wraps and 140 wraps of crack cocaine in his underwear.

They also seized 82 methandienone tablets and his phone, which linked him to county lines.

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Police arrested Bavin again in January 2020 when a plain clothed officer watched a drug deal take place in Harrogate.

The officer followed the suspects to a block of flats where Bavin was hiding with more than £800, 19 wraps of heroin and a phone.

The courts granted the officer’s request to remand Bavin in custody at this point to “protect the wider public.”

Bavin subsequently faced charges of two counts of possesing heroin with intent to supply, one count of possesing crack cocaine with intent to supply and one count of possing methandienone with intent to supply.

He changed his plea to guilty to all offences when he appeared at court in November 2020.

Investigating officer, detective constable Tom Barker of Harrogate’s Operation Expedite Team, said:

“Lee Bavin is a prolific offender who showed no regard whatsoever to police action.

“I am hopeful that while he is in prison he is able to reflect on the crimes he has committed and receives help to rectify his criminal behaviour.

“Drug dealing causes misery in our communities we hope local people are reassured that we are committed to disrupting it and taking those responsible off the streets.