A drug addict who got in debt to his dealers was forced to let them dig up his concrete yard and install a safe stacked with £180,000 worth of cocaine, heroin and cannabis.
Peter Spencer, 41, was also "pressured and threatened" into running a "graft phone" for the gang, and allowed his loft to be used to grow a "small but sophisticated" cannabis farm. The roofer was at home when Merseyside Police raided the property on September 6, 2019, and quickly found the drugs.
Spencer was living in Chiswell Street, Kensington, at the time with his partner who was also addicted to Class A drugs. He appeared in Liverpool Crown Court today to be sentenced for possessing heroin, crack-cocaine, and cannabis with intent to supply, plus an additional charge of cultivating cannabis.
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He was sentenced alongside another man, 34-year-old Christopher Bird, who was found in the house with £2,500 in cash in his pocket as well as a set of keys for the safe in the back yard. Bird, of Walsingham Road, Childwall, was initially charged with being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs but reached a deal with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which accepted a guilty plea to possessing criminal property and allowed the more serious charges to lie on the file.
Karl Scholz, prosecuting, told the court Merseyside Police had a search warrant for the house and arrived at around 7.30pm, finding a number of people present including Spencer and Bird. He said: "As the officers introduced themselves Christopher Bird was seen for the first time and was seen to move quickly towards the back of the property.
"As he reached a downstairs bathroom the officers followed and detained him. It was immediately apparent that there were drugs in the house. There were drugs on the kitchen surfaces, scales and tick lists."
Mr Scholz said the officers conducted a detailed search of the house and found a hole in the concrete floor of the back yard, covered with a plastic mat. Inside, a safe had been installed which was openable using the keys found in Bird's pocket.
Inside the safe was a large haul of drugs, including 1.5kg of cocaine, 81g of heroin, 1.6kg of cannabis resin and 350g of cannabis bush. The court heard the estimated street value of the stash was between £89,000 and £187,000.
The search also uncovered four potted cannabis plants in the loft, alongside cultivation equipment. Mr Scholz said: "Spencer was interviewed and he was to state that he and his partner had been drug users and that he accrued drug debts of some £2,500, and he was to say pressure was brought to bear on him to store drugs at his home address."
He said around two months before his arrest the safe was installed, and he was forced to operate two mobile phones and deliver drugs for the organised crime group. Spencer pleaded guilty on the basis he had no access to the safe and was acting on the direction of others.
Bird initially claimed he was not involved in any criminality and was simply in "the wrong place at the wrong time" when the house was raided. However, he later admitted the money laundering charge, although no explanation was given as to his role in the supply of drugs.
Mr Scholz said Spencer had four previous convictions for offences including disorderly conduct and producing cannabis.
The court heard Spencer has since moved in with his parents in Roberts Court, Runcorn. He was unrepresented in court, and in an emotional speech to Judge David Potter he described how he was desperate to get his children out of care after they were "abandoned" by his ex-partner after his arrest.
Spencer said he had worked with social services to get clean from drugs and had been sober since January 2020, as proven by regular drug tests. He told Judge David Potter he sees the children, aged three, five, six and nine, every weekend and was fully aware he was going to be sent to prison.
Under questioning from Judge Potter, he said: "All I can say is, if I could turn back time and not get on drugs I would. The people who have really suffered are my children. I wish I had never got on drugs because of what has happened to them, but I wish I had never got on drugs at all. I have lost everything."
John Rowan, representing Bird, told the court his client had no previous convictions and was a a "hard-working family man".
Judge Potter, passing sentence, said: "The supply of Class A drugs, as you know, is a very serious crime which brings misery to those addicted to them and to the families who try and support them. They blight communities in which addicts look to maintain those addictions in all sorts of areas."
Spencer was jailed for three years and four months. Bird was handed an eight month jail sentence, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to complete 120 hours of unpaid work and complete five Rehabilitation Activity Days with the Probation Service.
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