Just over a quarter of people who appear in court and are convicted of crimes are women. And in some cases, love or loyalty can prove to be the reason behind their predicament.
Statistics reveal that in 2019, 74 per cent of those dealt with by the criminal justice system were men, and 26 per cent were women, a figure described as 'constant' over the five years before that.
The M.E.N. has reported on how women have become involved in crime through their boyfriends. Whether it be acting under 'duress', enjoying luxuries afforded by crime or through misguided loyalty, these women ended up before a judge accused of serious offences.
Holly Caldwell
Caldwell became a 'trusted' member of a gang after falling in love with Tareanio Blake. The pair met in a nightclub where she was working as a hostess.
She began driving drugs around for the Cheetham Hill outfit, and was planning on using the money she was paid to save for a deposit on a house. But it was one particular trip that landed her in serious trouble.
Mohammed Shahid, 30, also at the head of the gang, had asked her to drive to Luton to deliver a package. Caldwell, 27, believed it was drugs, but it actually contained six guns and 180 rounds of ammunition.
The guns were recovered by police and she, Blake and Shahid were caught. Caldwell later said of Blake, 30: "I couldn't believe he had put me in that situation."
Caldwell, of King Edward Road, St Helens, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to supply class A drugs and possession of a prohibited weapon. She was jailed for seven years.
Blake, of Peakdale Avenue, Crumpsall, was previously found guilty of two counts of conspiracy to supply class A drugs and conspiring to sell or transfer firearms. Shahid, of Peakdale Avenue, Crumpsall, pleaded guilty to the same offences. Blake was also convicted of conspiring to possess a firearm with intent to endanger life.
Blake and Shahid are due to be sentenced at a later date.
Samantha Cox
Despite her Salford beauty salon producing a 'modest turnover', Cox enjoyed luxury items. She was seen driving a Range Rover, and later a Porsche Macan worth about £50,000.
Cox, 30, also had expensive goods including designer clothes, shoes and other items worth more than £30,000. The true source of her wealth was laid bare in court.
"Samantha Cox maintained a lifestyle of some luxury, and the prosecution say that that was funded by her involvement in the supply of drugs," Manchester Crown Court was told. Her business was legitimate but did not provide the funds that allowed her to provide such luxuries.
She was locked up as part of a gang which dealt heroin and cocaine in Salford. Her former partner Lee Worthington, 36, previously jailed for 10 years for drugs offences, used illicit phones to remain involved in crime from prison, using associates he knew from jail to help launder drug money.
"Mr (Lee) Worthington called the shots and she did his bidding, and was rewarded for that," Cox's barrister said. She felt 'under pressure' to help her former partner, and felt a sense of 'loyalty', the court heard.
Cox, of Littleton Road, Salford, admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine, and converting and concealing criminal property. She was jailed for five years and five months.
Worthington admitted money laundering and was sentenced to three years and five months.
Mia Peers
Peers was given a bag by her partner. He told her to hide it and ‘not ask any questions’. She did just that, but what was actually inside the bag would later come back to haunt her.
About 10 days later, she was at her friend’s house when masked men stormed the property and held knives to their throats. They were looking for the gun - but got the wrong address.
It was then that she realised the men were likely looking for the bag her boyfriend had given her. She went back home and looked inside the bag, finding a gun and ammunition and touching it.
Peers, 20, told her mother, who then informed the police. Police attended and Peers directed them to the weapon.
Her barrister told Manchester Crown Court: "She was extremely vulnerable to exploitation and there was some sort of infatuation with [her boyfriend] - she is the only one forensically linked to the weapon."
She pleaded guilty to possessing a prohibited weapon and ammunition and was jailed for five years. But on sentence was cut on appeal to three years and nine months after judges ruled she had 'exceptional circumstances', to overturn the mandatory minimum five year sentence for possessing a firearm.
Top judges in London said Peer's 'lack of knowledge' that the bag contained a gun did provided exceptional circumstances. Peers previously appeared on the hit Channel 4 show Educating Greater Manchester, which followed the lives of students at Harrop Fold School in Little Hulton, back in 2017.
The program revealed how she fell pregnant aged 15, while sitting her GCSEs.
Jessica Myles
Myles lied to police to try and cover for her boyfriend. At the time she was in a relationship with Kade Bagnall.
He was driving her Toyota Auris when he crashed the car and tried to run away. Police attended the scene and found wraps of cocaine and heroin.
Myles, 33, then tried to help distance her boyfriend from the drugs. The day after the crash she rang her insurer, claiming the car had been stolen, and later gave police a statement confirming what she had told insurers.
But CCTV footage showed Bagnall crashing the car and running off. Bagnall pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of drugs, dangerous driving and driving whilst disqualified and was jailed for 45 months.
Myles admitted perverting the course of justice. “She was put under duress at the time,” her barrister told Minshull Street Crown Court.
"She is somebody who has made poor life choices." Sentencing her, Judge Bernadette Baxter said: “You are a mother of two children and it’s very sad to see you sitting in the dock of a Crown Court.
“But you have pleaded guilty to a very serious offence. Perverting the course of justice is something that goes to the heart of the criminal justice system.
“You should think about them [your children] before you get involved with criminals and commit crime on behalf of criminals." Myles, of Longdale Drive, Mottram, received an eight month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months.
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