A young drug dealer who "got in the wrong crowd" has been ordered to pay £16,000.
Jack Thornhill, from Southport, is currently serving 28 months in prison and was ordered by a judge at a Proceeds of Crime hearing at Liverpool Crown Court on Friday to pay back the cash within three months. The 21-year-old found himself mixed in up crime after getting in “with the wrong crowd”
Recorder Ian Unsworth, QC, said if he does not do so 21-year-old Thornhill will have to serve an extra eight months consecutively to the sentence imposed in December. In an out of court settlement at Liverpool Crown Court it had been agreed that Thornhill, of Griffiths Drive, Southport, had benefited by £17,515 and has realisable assets of £16,000.
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When he was jailed the court heard after mixing with the wrong crowd he began using cocaine to fit in and after running up massive debts to his suppliers he felt under pressure to start supplying the drug to others. He comes from a respectable family and his barrister, Kate Morley, said that a probation officer described him “as one of the most unlikely young men to dirty his hands in such offences.”
She added: “He is extremely polite, well mannered, eloquent, well spoken and does not hold pro-criminal attitudes. His parents are astonished …….that he would turn to this behaviour.”
He had been arrested at 2am on October 6, 2020, when police on mobile patrol in Guildford Road, Southport, noticed him in a black VW Golf because of the manner of his driving. He was very nervous and appeared to be under the influence of drink or drugs.
When searched two mobile phones were found on him and in his car they found eight wraps of cocaine, a knuckleduster and altogether a total of £735 cash was found on him and in the car. Thornhill tested positive for driving under the influence of cocaine and police went to his home.
His bedroom was searched and a lock knife was found in a bedside drawer and a kitchen knife behind the headboard of his bed. Scales, half a kilo of a drug mixing agent, bags of cocaine with a potential street value of up to £15,000 and a further £5,960 cash was found.
When interviewed he made no comment but when his mobile phone was analysed it showed he had been involved in supplying cocaine for four weeks. The defendant pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine with intent to supply, supplying the drug and possessing knuckleduster.
