THESE are all the criminals put behind bars by Swindon judges in January.
JUDGES at Swindon Crown Court handed down more than 20 years-worth of jail time to six dealers who were unmasked selling drugs to undercover police officers posing as addicts.
It was the culmination of hundreds of hours of work for Wiltshire Police’s drugs squad. The five-month operation – codenamed Jetway – saw at least four undercover officers take to the town’s streets posing as addicts. More than 60 people were caught in the honeytrap.
Det Insp Paul Franklin, who runs the force’s dedicated crime team, said he had been shocked by the brazenness of the criminals dealing heroin and crack cocaine in full view of families in Swindon parks.
One of the undercover officers, known to the courts only as Steve, said the town had the most open drug market he had ever seen.
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A COUNTY lines dealer who handed out crack cocaine and heroin in the shadow of the Swindon Town stadium has been jailed for almost six years.
Londoner Jerome Sewell was working for the Jimmy line when he was caught peddling class A drugs to undercover police officers in Swindon last August.
The 25-year-old was among the dealers snared in Wiltshire Police’s undercover operation in summer 2019. More than 60 have been arrested and dozens have been charged.
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A LIMO firm boss has been jailed for more than five months for using a customer’s bank card to splurge on jet ski experiences and Dyson products.
Former Brunel Rooms director Jason Ranford had denied the five counts of fraud by false representation but changed his pleas before the case came to trial.
He used the bank details of a woman who had hired a limousine from him to run up hundreds of pounds’ worth of bills. Ranford, whose driving record was described by one judge in 2014 as one of the worst he had seen, ran private hire firms M4 Limos and more recently M4 Partybuses.
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A DRUG driver who killed popular Penhill motorcyclist Luke Chapman has been jailed for more than two years.
Sentencing Paul Middleton at Swindon Crown Court on what would have been Mr Chapman’s 30th birthday, Judge Jason Taylor QC said: “I pass this sentence with an incredible heavy heart. You made a dreadful error of judgement in choosing to drive that day.
“But you are a young man with I hope a bright future. That is more than Luke has.”
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A FARMER who swindled the taxman out of £300,000 and whose office burned down the night before an HMRC officer visited has been jailed for almost three-and-a-half years.
Over more than five years Anthony Page, 64, entered 20 false returns claiming back hundreds of thousands of pounds of VAT on zero-rated farm goods and services, including cattle sales.
Those false returns, which at its height saw Page claim £25,000 to £30,000 every quarter, kept Clivey Barn Farm, near Dilton Marsh, afloat.
When HMRC officers put Page on notice that he was under investigation the VAT claims fell sharply.
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A BASEMENT sex fiend has been recalled to prison after leading police on a 70mph chase through Old Town.
Anthony Ford was jailed for 10 years in 2013 for the brutal rape of a teen boy in a Gloucester cellar.
Then 16-years-old, Ford and another boy lured their victim into a basement, rubbed cement dust in his face, stripped and beat him, stubbed a cigarette out on his skin then molested him. The judge labelled it one of the most brutal, depraved and disgusting pieces of behaviour considered by the court.
Now, Ford is back in prison – and is likely to remain there for at least the next few months – after he was jailed at Swindon Crown Court for dangerous driving.
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A TEEN tried to palm a suspected drugs line phone onto another as he spoke to police officers – all the while with £1,000-worth of class A drugs in his pants.
Vulnerable Lewis Morton was just 17 and already on bail for drug dealing when he was stopped by police leaving a house on Alanbrooke Crescent in September 2018.
Now, 18-year-old Morton has been jailed for 27 months by a Swindon Crown Court judge who branded the youngster’s history of compliance with court orders appalling.
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A MOUSTACHIOED cocaine dealer who had a nailed baseball bat stashed in his flat has been jailed.
Swindon Crown Court heard police were called on May 10, 2018, to reports of a BMW in Calne suspected of being involved in drug dealing. Matthew Cutler was the man behind the wheel.
Stashed behind the driver’s seat was a small amount of cocaine. Also in the car was £2,145 and a holstered mobile phone on which were messages revealing Cutler’s part in dealing class A drugs.
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A County Lines foot soldier working for a gang that promised “banging” crack and heroin has been jailed.
Terry Horwat asked the judge to put him behind bars so he could get help with addictions to booze and drugs. He said he had had the best night’s sleep of his life after being put on medication at the police station on Monday.
Judge Peter Crabtree obliged – locking him up for two-and-a-half years.
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A ROBBER who stuffed what appeared to be a trouser leg over his head to disguise his face has been jailed for more than three years.
Trowbridge man Ryan Jones and an - as yet unidentified – accomplice were caught on CCTV storming the Central Convenience Store in Winsley, near Bradford on Avon, on May 24 last year.
Both men wore homemade disguises that appeared from video footage to have been constructed from a pair of grey tracksuit trousers.
For the full story, including CCTV footage of the robbery, click here
AN ADDICT halved his drugs to sell on to others in order to fund his habit and buy presents for his child.
Unfortunately for Sheldon Thomas, undercover officers codenamed Steve and Rob were among his customers in Swindon last year.
Now, Thomas, 38, has been jailed for three years after he admitted six counts of supplying class A drugs.
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A KEYBOARD yob who threatened to set fire to a police car with the officers inside has been jailed for almost a year.
Nicholas Bray sent a private message to the Swindon North Police Facebook page on January 6 saying he planned to stab the next police officer he saw and set fire to their car - with them still in it. The 22-year-old claimed he would kill any police officer who tried to arrest him.
His message read: "Yooo wasssuuppp just wanted [to] say that [I] am going to stab the next fed I see and then set their car on f***ing fire with em in it! It ain't no threat believe me if you try and get me then I'll have 2 kill all of you." He ended the message with a laughing face emoji.
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A CYCLIST who came to a group of addicts’ aid after their original drug dealer failed to show never thought he’d be caught by police.
Jamie Webber had racked up a cannabis debt to dealers and offered a chance to clear the debt by selling drugs for the gang for a day.
The 21-year-old told probation officers he never realised the seriousness of what he was doing and never thought he’d be caught on the first day he was dealing drugs.
Now, he has been jailed for two and a half years.
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