It’s payback time for drug network man
But Swadlincote dealer is forced to hand over just £2,600 from his £174,000 proceeds
A SWADLINCOTE man was said to have profited by around £174,000 from his role in an extensive operation dealing drugs across the Midlands region, a court has heard.
Gareth Pincombe, 38, with Richard Menzies, 33, had been part of a crime syndicate in the Burton and Swadlincote areas for almost two years, the hearing was told.
Pincombe and Menzies were supplied by a crime gang who were arrested during a covert Staffordshire police operation – codenamed Operation Dynamo.
In October last year Pincombe, of Repton Road, Hartshorne, was jailed for eight years and two months for his role in the conspiracy.
Menzies, of Meadow View Road, Newhall, who had been a ‘runner’ for Pincombe, was jailed for 43 months.
Now at a hearing last week at Shrewsbury Crown Court under the Proceeds of Crime Act regulations it was determined that Pincombe’s benefit from his criminal activity was £174,134.
However, police said his realisable assets were very limited. Judge Jonathan Gosling made a confiscation order in the sum of £2,644 and gave Pincombe three months to pay – or face a further four months imprisonment.
A confiscation hearing for Menzies is expected to be considered by the court next month.
Also in court last week was Matthew Parsons, 34, who was concerned in the supply of Class A and Class B drugs. He used his work as a DJ in south Staffordshire as a cover for supplying drugs.
In October last year, Parsons, of Lower Birches Way, Rugeley, was jailed for three years and six months for supplying cocaine and Mephedrone.
Last week the court heard he had made an estimated £15,000 from his dealing and police had determined his realisable assets included the value of a car, disco equipment and a collection of vinyl records.
A confiscation order was made in the sum of £15,000, which must be paid within three months or Parsons faces a further seven months in prison.
Parsons, and Pincombe and Menzies, were supplied by a crime gang based at Cannock and were among 21 men and two women from the Burton area, Cannock, Walsall, Stafford, Redditch and Swindon, who were arrested during a lengthy covert Staffordshire police inquiry – codenamed Operation Dynamo.
The court heard that Pincombe, a former addict, was jailed for 14 years in 2007 for conspiring to supply Class A drugs across the Midlands and had been released in May, 2013.
Both Pincombe and Menzies had admitted conspiracy to supply Mephedrone – a class B drug also known as M-cat – between November 2014 and June 2016.
Pincombe was arrested in July, 2014 for an offence of aggravated vehicle taking and was involved in a crash and was jailed for six months.
Police recovered £1,000 in cash and a carrier bag which contained traces of cannabis and cocaine and from which Menzies fingerprints were recovered.
The prosecution said this indicated the drug conspiracy had been in operation prior to November 2014, and contact between Pincombe and leading members of the Cannock-based crime group.
At the time Pincombe was in jail and was not released until January 2015, which suggested he was able to orchestrate events from his prison cell.
In June 2015 Menzies was arrested after police searched a car and found three kilos of Mephedrone worth £45,000 and one of the packages revealed Menzies’ fingerprints.