Ex-girlfriend of drugs boss avoids jail by the 'skin of her teeth' for role in gang exploiting vulnerable teens
18.05.2023 - 18:43
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Two men have been jailed for exploiting vulnerable 16-year-olds to deal crack cocaine and heroin more than 100 miles away. The ex-girlfriend of one of the dealers who ferried a boy to and from Greater Manchester avoided jail by the 'skin of her teeth'.
Jamie Upton set-up a drugs line in Hull in March 2020, transporting heroin and crack cocaine between there and Manchester, to make 'easy money', having originally come to Newton Heath from the Republic of Ireland. He had taken control of the county lines operation from a male known as 'David' and was taking direction from him, prosecutor Maria Brannan told the court.
In March 2020 Upton, 25, texted his then girlfriend, Georgia Burns, telling her he was going to Hull 'for a while' claiming he could make £3,000 a month. "I need to do anything at the moment," he said.
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He went to a property in the Beverley Road area of Hull late in March to set-up operations, texting Burns, 22, that the 'gaff was hanging'. Days after this he travelled to the property with a 16-year-old by train where the teen was expected to live in the "unsanitary living conditions for the purpose of selling drugs," Ms Brannan told Bolton Crown Court.
Upton texted Burns about the teenagers working for him, saying: "They are my joeys, I f***ing pay them so they know where their bread's buttered." Burns replied: "If you’re paying them they can’t say no."
On April 17 that year the Hull property was raided by police, who knew it to be used for the supply of drugs. Upton was found upstairs in the bathroom with a 16-year-old trying to flush heroin and crack cocaine down the toilet, estimated to be worth more