Smug drug dealer sold 'herbal diazepam' from his bedroom and hired mum to do 'bookkeeping'

04.02.2022 - 02:09 / dailyrecord.co.uk

A man who ran a drug dealing business selling 'herbal diazepam' hired his mum to manage payments.

Michael King, 31, managed the business from the bedroom of his family home.

Minshull Crown Court heard that after a police search of the address, officers found over 2,000 Etizolam tablets worth a value of £12,000, Manchester Evening News reports.

They also discovered cash boxes, expensive handbags and drug paraphernalia in his mother's, Debbie Hayward's, bedroom.

Police recovered King's mobile and found messages indicating that he was drug dealing, with included debtors lists and him describing the quality of the drugs.

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 on the bed; a money bag containing £169 in the bedside drawer and inside a Mulberry