Ex-prostitute jailed over ‘one-stop shop’ of drugs
Woman, 49, was caught selling heroin and crack cocaine from home
AFORMER illegal sex worker from Runcorn was caught selling heroin and crack cocaine twice in seven months from her home address – described in court as a “one-stop shop” of drugs.
Denise Ryan, 49, of Chester Close, Castlefields, Runcorn, was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to 10 counts including four charges of possession with intent to supply Class A drugs, and a range of Class A to C simple possession charges.
Oliver King, prosecuting at Chester Crown Court, said two officers had been on plain clothes duty on Chester Close on May 10 last year when Ryan emerged from her home, approached and began speaking to them.
One of the constables identified himself as police and “immediately noticed her demeanour change” and she became nervous.
He asked if she had anything she shouldn’t and she revealed 18 wraps of crack cocaine and 13 of heroin together worth about £310.
Mr King said a search of her house revealed a “one-stop shop of drugs” with 56 wraps of heroin and 62 wraps of crack together worth £1,180, a small amount of cannabis resin, 20 tramadol tablets worth about £33, four clonazepam worth about £3, one pregabalin tablet worth about 75p, nine alprazolam tablets, 18 gabapentin worth about £12 and 13 morphine tablets worth about £12.75.
Police found sim cards, cash, other paraphernalia and a mobile phone featuring messages “consistent with drug dealing” dating back to March 2 and one on the day of arrest asking for three wraps each of heroin and crack cocaine.
One of the constables was again on duty in plain clothes on December 4 when he saw a woman leave Ryan’s home and get in the back of a taxi, so he spoke to her and a search found she had six wraps of heroin.
Suspecting drug dealing at Ryan’s house, he conducted another search, uncovering 39 wraps of crack cocaine worth £390, 17 wraps of heroin worth £170 and just over £1,000 in cash.
She again gave no comment answers in interview.
Mr King said Ryan had 42 convictions for 69 offences including “numerous” for “dishonesty and prostitution”.
She served a 15-month prison sentence in the 1990s for supplying a controlled drug, and was again jailed in 2015 for smuggling cannabis into prison.
Judge Nicholas Woodward, presiding, agreed to the forfeiture and destruction of the drugs but rejected an application for a Criminal Behaviour Order, saying she was to receive a “lengthy” prison sentence.
Anthony Rose, defending, said his client had pleaded guilty and was “clearly a vulnerable individual” who had been “addicted to drugs for some time”.
He said the first time she was caught selling drugs, she was doing it to fund her habit and the second time in December was to pay off the debt to her supplier for losing the first lot of heroin and crack cocaine.
She had also suffered ill health affecting her mobility, which means “she walks assisted and sometimes she can’t walk at all”.
Mr Rose asked Judge Woodward to show “mercy” and consider “this lady has had by any measure a difficult life”.
He said: “Your honour knows the way this works, when people start taking drugs, dealers are able to utilise these people for their own purposes.”
Judge Woodward sentenced Ryan to three years and nine months in prison for the first set of crack and heroin charges, plus two years and three months consecutive for the second set.
The total sentence was six years in prison, reduced by 131 days for 232 days on bail on electronic tag.
He imposed no penalty with regard to the other charges, and said it was not in the public interest to pursue two failures to attend court on August 13 and 26.
During his brief sentencing remarks, he noted she had a “significant criminal record”.