Smirking drug dealer sold ‘herbal diazepam’ from his bedroom and hired his mum to do the ‘bookkeeping’
03.02.2022 - 23:55
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
A man who ran a drug dealing business selling ‘herbal diazepam’ hired his mum to do the 'bookkeeping’.
Michael King, 31, managed the business from the bedroom of his family home.
After a police search of the property, officers found over 2,000 Etizolam tablets worth a total value of £12,000, Minshull Street Crown Court heard.
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They also found cash boxes, expensive handbags and drug paraphernalia in his mum Debbie Hayward's bedroom.
Police recovered King’s mobile phone and found messages indicating he was drug dealing, which included debtors lists and him describing the quality of the drugs as ‘sick’.
His stepfather, Michael Hayward, 39, helped with delivering the drugs, and Debbie, 55, assisted with negotiating the payments, the court heard.
Each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class C drugs.
Prosecutor Paul Dockery told the court that on May 15 2020, at around 6.20am, officers went to the house in Moorfield Drive, Hyde, and Michael Hayward answered the door.
Debbie, his partner, was upstairs in bed, and her son was in his bedroom. Both were escorted downstairs and officers began to search the house.
“In the upstairs rear bedroom in five tin boxes on the floor was found a total of £714.58 in cash,” Mr Dockery said.
“On top of a drawer unit below the television was a plastic bag containing a small set of scales, a spoon, a number of snap seal bags and a Tupperware box containing 3.27g cocaine.
“Also they found a tub containing 1,886 tablets of Etizolam from the side of the bed; a debtor’s list, a Sony mobile, a sandwich bag on the bed containing 3 bags with 300 Etizolam tablet inside; a plastic wallet containing £1,780