Pizza delivery driver brought teenage drug runners to city in a Ford Focus
MAN PART OF COUNTY LINES OPERATION
A PIZZA delivery driver with £10,000 of debts got tangled up in a big County Lines drugs operation and went down to London to collect vulnerable teenagers and drugs runners.
Scott Wildeboer, 35, drove them to Hull to be used in selling heroin and crack cocaine on the streets.
He offered his services as a driver and let it be known that he was available as a way of earning some “easy money” to boost his delivery earnings, Hull Crown Court heard.
Wildeboer, of Cadogan Street, Hull, admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine.
He also admitted possessing cannabis with intent to supply.
London drug dealers Fahim Mohamed, 21, of no fixed address, and Shiloh Tomlin, 20, of Croydon, Surrey, also admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine between November 1, 2019, and April 8 last year.
The court heard Wildeboer went down to London five times to bring young people or drugs runners to Hull between March and April last year.
He had used a red Ford Focus car in the trips to London.
David Godfrey, mitigating, said that Wildeboer was a “hard-working chap” who had never been in trouble before.
“To find himself in the middle of a conspiracy like this is somewhat troubling,” said Mr Godfrey.
He had debts of £10,000 and it was those debts that got him involved in the drugs enterprise.
Wildeboer had been working in Hull as a pizza delivery driver.
“He let it be known that he was available for further driving work and this opportunity came up,” said Mr Godfrey.
“He was going to London to pick up these individuals to bring them back north.
“He brought men and, in some cases, boys up to Hull to deal Class A drugs.
“He was doing it for a small amount of cash. He was not always paid the cash.
“He was the logistical part of this operation but that’s it. He must have had some understanding of the scale of the operation.
“At some point, the penny dropped.”
Wildeboer acted out of “financial naivety”. He had not smoked cannabis this year.
He was working for a timber merchants when he was first arrested but the company “let him go” and he later worked at a Covid testing centre in Southcoates Lane.
He had a three-year-old son. Mark Savage, representing Mohamed and Tomlin, said that they were both aged 18 at the time and had now been in custody for 18 months.
“Youthful stupidity had overtaken
what they ought to have done, which was to walk away,” said Mr Savage.
“They were very, very young at the time of these offences.
“Both young men are adamant that this is not a path that they will tread again.”
They had “learned a bitter l esson” and, through seeing drugs in prison, they had been given a “very harsh reminder of their own actions”.
Recorder Mark Mckone QC told the pair: “Both of you travelled to Hull from London on multiple occasions over many months.
“The use of vulnerable people in a County Lines operation makes it a particularly serious offence of its type.”
Wildeboer was jailed for two years and nine months. His red Ford Focus will be forfeited.
Mohamed admitted separate offences from Bournemouth Crown Court of possessing heroin and cocaine with intent to supply and possessing cannabis on October 10, 2019.
He was jailed for eight years and three months.
Tomlin was sent to a young offenders’ institution for six years and nine months.