Gangster is back in prison for day trip cocaine deals
A NOTORIOUS Salford gangster is back behind bars after being caught dealing cocaine from a leased Mercedes.
Marvin Berkeley, 34, was jailed indefinitely in 2007 for leading a robbery and kidnap gang known as The Fallowfield Mandem.
A splinter group of the Gooch gang, Berkeley and his crew made their name by abducting and extorting drug dealers who were unlikely to report them to police.
Their plan unravelled when they snatched three men who they wrongly identified as dealers.
While behind bars, Berkeley made more headlines when he developed a romance with a prison guard. Alison Sharples became ‘besotted’ with Berkeley, formerly of Kirkham Street, Salford, and told a friend she wanted ‘to have a chocolate baby’ with him. The grandma was rumbled when a medicinal syringe containing Berkeley’s semen was found in her handbag during a routine search.
The former operational support officer at HMP Garth in Leyland, Lancashire, was jailed for nine months after being convicted of misconduct in public office.
Berkeley was released on licence in 2016, but Preston Crown Court heard how he was soon back up to his old tricks. On three separate occasions in January 2018, he was caught selling Class A drugs in Blackpool to undercover police officers. On two occasions he was in a VW Polo and on the third occasion he was in a rented Mercedes.
In August, Berkeley was stopped in a car travelling to the Fylde coast with Christopher Saunders in the passenger seat. Saunders had more than £1,000 worth of heroin, crack and cocaine on him and Berkeley had the key to a flat in Lytham St Annes where officers found a further quantity of cocaine.
Both men pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply class A drugs.
Judge Beverley Lunt sentencing, said: “Marvin Berkeley, you were fairly high up this chain of dealing for someone who has had nothing to do with drugs. You received this very serious sentence a long time ago now and you served the relevant part of it. You knew it was hanging over you.
“You were not only dealing in January but also in August, by when you were also driving a flash Mercedes you had leased.”
She jailed Berkeley for four years and Saunders was sentenced to three years for his offences.