A dog café owner was caught with more than £6,000 of heroin hidden underneath his floorboards.
Canine restaurateur Andrew Cain turned "warehouseman" for a Liverpool-based gang, who posted the illicit substances to Scotland and hid them in a park, after the collapse of his business.
Paul Blasbery, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court how police raided the 39-year-old's home on Sedgeley Walk in Huyton on October 16 last year and found 606 wraps of heroin stashed under the floorboards. These class A drugs came with an estimated street value of £6,060 - with cutting agents, a set of scales and an electric mixer also seized from the address by officers.
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Less than three weeks earlier on September 28 2021, a separate investigation in Scotland had discovered around a thousand wraps of heroin and crack cocaine found hidden on the banks of the River Don in a park in Stoneywood, Aberdeen, on September 28 2021. Cain's DNA was found on the wrappings, with a gang from Merseyside having been transporting and stashing the drugs for onward sale in the area.
He handed himself in at Copy Lane Police Station on November 11, and later pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of class A drugs - receiving five years and 219 days behind at the High Court in Edinburgh back in May. This was his third strike, having previously been jailed for two years and eight months in 2009 for being concerned in the supply of class A drugs and serving five years for possession of heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply following another conviction in 2011.
Gerald Baxter, defending, described his client as a "warehouseman" who had stored the drugs and then posted them north of the border. He said: "I accept, of course, that the defendant is what we call a third striker.
"That is what he was when he came before the court in Edinburgh. It was essentially the same criminal drug activity as regards to the Edinburgh case and also the Liverpool case."
Mr Baxter added: "The defendant is in effect a warehouseman. Drugs were being stored at his house then moved to Scotland, and of course he didn't know what would happened to them after that."
Cain, now of no fixed address and appearing in court via video link to HMP Addiewell, admitted a further charge of possession of heroin with intent to supply and was locked up for another four years this afternoon, Monday. Judge Robert Trevor-Jones also ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the drugs.
Reports following the defendant's court appearance in Scotland described how he had opened Pups and Cups Bistro on Prescot Road, Old Swan, back in 2018 following his release from prison. The premises was described as the city’s "first venue dedicated to a dog-friendly service" at the time.
But Cain and his business partner went their separate ways around Christmas 2019. The café then closed as a result.
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