A convicted armed robber stopped by police on the M6 was transporting a cargo of cocaine worth up to £500,000. Now Ashley Makin, from Bolton, faces a lengthy jail sentence.
Makin, 32, appeared at Carlisle Crown Court on Wednesday (August 24) morning via video link from custody. During a short hearing, he pleaded guilty to possessing class A controlled drug cocaine with intent to supply it to another.
His offence was committed on July 1 while he was driving a Vauxhall Insignia on the M6 northbound which was stopped by police near Shap, between Penrith and Kendal.
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The court heard around half a kilo of cocaine had been seized. This, say the prosecution, could have had a wholesale value of between £180,000 and £200,000. If sold on the street, it could potentially have been worth up to £500,000.
Recorder Ian Unsworth QC adjourned the case. The respective barristers agreed a formal written basis for Makin’s guilty plea should be produced to assist with sentencing.
No probation service pre-sentence report was ordered. Meanwhile Makin’s barrister, Amrit Jandoo, conceded the ultimate prison sentence for his client was likely to be 'measured in years'.
Makin, of Cawdor Court, Farnworth, Bolton, is due to be sentenced at the crown court on September 21. He will remain in custody in the meantime.
The court also heard Makin was one of two men who had been previously jailed for the terrifying robbery of a McDonald’s restaurant in 2015 which involved the brandishing of weapons. He was handed a five-year jail term by a judge at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court in early 2017 for that offence, which happened in Stockport.
Makin, who was living on Kiwi Street, Salford, at the time and an accomplice went behind the counter and threatened the manager with the meat cleaver during the restaurant raid on Ashton Road in Bredbury.
The pair, who were masked, demanded the manager open the safe, and then threatened other members of staff during the early morning robbery. They forced the manager to empty the contents of the safe into a bag, before leaving with £1,700 in cash.
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