Festival goer’s Kinder surprise
REVELLER CAUGHT SMUGGLING DRUGS INSIDE HER BODY BY STAFF
A YOUNG festival-goer was caught smuggling in Class A and B drugs hidden in Kinder eggs inside her body.
Charlotte Williams, 20, ignored prominent warning signs about taking drugs into Creamfields music festival in Cheshire, attempting to smuggle in nearly £2,000 worth of drugs stashed inside her.
She was caught out after she was quizzed by security staff when she arrived at the Warrington site with a four-day pass, Liverpool Crown Court heard.
The pub chef admitted that she had drugs hidden on herself and pulled out a Kinder Egg from her genital area.
She denied she had anything else but when told she would be strip searched she produced another Kinder Egg from the same location.
The court heard that she asked if she would be in trouble and when told it would depend if it was for personal use she said it was not.
“She was asked how much and she said there was a fair bit and it was not for her but brought them in for someone else,” Gerald Baxter, prosecuting, said. The eggs were found to contain 19 small snap bags and two large snap bags which contained 25 grams of ketamine and three and a half grams of cocaine, he added.
The ketamine was worth £1,500 and the high purity cocaine had a street value of £300.
When interviewed by police, the court heard Williams said she ‘did not accept’ she would supply any of the drugs to anyone else.
“I would not have sold or even shared them,” she said. “They were for my own personal use.”
But Mr Baxter said she had pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine with intent to supply on the basis she should have shared it. She admitted possessing the ketamine with intent to supply on the basis that just under half was “a retail quantity” and the rest was to share with her friend.
The prosecutor said that in an impact statement the festival organisers described drug problems at the festival including a fatality in 2022. They told how £89,000 worth of drugs had been seized from dealers and almost £179,000 worth voluntarily deposited by festival goers in surrender bins.
The court heard that Williams, of Narrow Lane, Gresford, near Wrexham, has no previous convictions. Simon Parry, defending, said that she is a highly-valued member of staff at the Pant-yr-Ochain public house in Gresford. She started work there as a teenager and “found it busy and stressful which led her to taking drugs.”
August 2022 had been a difficult time for her and she decided to take drugs to the festival “without very much thought for the consequences.”
He said that Williams, whose dad sat in the public gallery, had not reoffended and is now a full time worker at the pub who is doing well. Mr Parry added that “she is deeply ashamed” of her offending behaviour and describes the effects on her family who do not view it as acceptable.
Judge David Potter described Creamfields as a massive festival which attracts hundreds of thousands of people and which has a drug problem. “Deaths have occurred at Creamfields as a result of those taking controlled drugs.”
He said that there were many drugs warning signs on the way into the zero tolerance event. “You chose to ignore all those warnings and attempted to enter the site, secreted on your body were two Kinder eggs, one ketamine, the other cocaine.”
He said that she intended to sell ketamine which commands a premium price because of the risks of taking it in and she had taken significant steps to avoid detection.
Judge Potter sentenced her to 12 months detention suspended for 18 months and ordered her to carry out 120 hours unpaid working 30 days rehabilitation activity days.
He also imposed a curfew between 11pm to 8am for the next three months.