Mum kept her life as cocaine smuggler secret from family
A MUM led a secret life hoarding almost £240,000 worth of cocaine in her home hidden away from her husband and child.
Clare Tague, 32, hid quantities of the drug in Kinder Eggs ready for street deals.
She said she became involved in the drug world after racking up significant gambling debts, when she sought solace in betting after the death of her father.
Tague, from Clayton, said she was acting as a ‘custodian’ of the drugs, and that dealers would come to her house and collect the cocaine.
There was no evidence of dealing on her phone, prosecutors confirmed at Manchester Crown Court.
The court was told that police searched her home in Keynsham Road, where she lived with her partner and 11-year-old child.
They found cocaine in a bag on a bookshelf in a bedroom, including two blocks of high purity cocaine, and 10 Kinder Eggs which contained snap bags of the drug.
The class A drug was also found in a supermarket bag inside a cupboard, with six blocks of cocaine and a further five smaller blocks being recovered.
Police said the total amount of cocaine recovered, about 1.2kg, could have a potential street value of £238,600.
After being arrested, Tague asked if she could speak to her husband, telling officers that he knew nothing about the drugs.
No evidence was offered by prosecutors against Tague’s husband, the court heard.
Officers asked Tague if there was anything else in the house they should know about, and she directed them to a bin in the kitchen.
There was a further 80 snap bags hidden under the bin.
Tague, who had no previous convictions, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply cocaine and was jailed for six years.
Defending, Rachel White said Tague didn’t sell the drugs herself.
Ms White said: “She says people would come and collect them (drugs). She didn’t directly sell them to users.”
She said Tague struggled to cope with the grief following the death of her father, and ‘sought escape in gambling,’ racking up ‘significant debts.’
She said Tague didn’t have the trappings of a ‘lavish lifestyle.’
Sentencing, Judge Martin Walsh said that drugs ‘blight communities’ and ‘destroy lives.’
He said; “Anybody who spends any time in these courts will quickly realise the devastating affect that addiction to class A drugs has.
“Anybody who deals in class A controlled drugs on a commercial scale must accept to receive significant custodial sentences.”
Tague showed no emotion as she was jailed. After the hearing, Detective Constable Terry Macmillan, from GMP’s City of Manchester North CID team, said: “While we don’t believe Tague was a street dealer as such, she was clearly involved in the supply chain and was making a profit from dealing cocaine.”