Jailed: Pair 'were running drugs call centre' into Shropshire

Natasha Hanson, who carried on with the illegal operation despite having been arrested, was jailed for six years.

Her accomplice, Khristopher Burton, who also admitted drugs offences was jailed for three years.

Graham Pickavance, prosecuting, told how Merseyside Police investigated the supply of Class A drugs from Merseyside to the Shrewsbury area during 2019 and 2020.

“This was known as the ‘Paddy Line’,” he said.

As a result of the investigation police raided an apartment in Lockerby Road, Kensington, Liverpool, on January 17 last year.

Both defendants were present and in the pocket of Hanson’s dressing gown they found a mobile phone which was actively receiving calls and texts.

Officers also found cannabis and behind a bath panel they discovered a stun gun on which the pair's DNA was found.

Mr Pickavance said that 'a graft phone’, two iPhones and a ‘tick list’ referring to cocaine and heroin, were also found.

An address in Lowfield, Shrewsbury was searched and a bank card in Hanson’s name was found which had been used to pay drug money into her bank account. Some had also been transferred to Burton’s account.

The graft phone had sent 7,033 messages between January 3 and 20, 2020, which were broadcast messages advertising the availability of cocaine and heroin being supplied in a ‘county lines’ type of network, said Mr Pickavance.

When 32-year-old Hanson’s Santander bank account was examined it was found that in the three months up to January 16, 2020, a total of £19,047 had gone through her account, which the Crown said related to drugs transactions.

Both Hanson and Burton, 42, of Bird Street, Wavertree, Liverpool, were released by police pending investigation.

On October 7, 2020, police on patrol in the Monksmoor area of Shrewsbury saw Hanson riding a bike.

Mr Pickavance said: “She was told to stop but continued to cycle along the road fiddling with her bra strap. She was stopped and told she was going to be taken to be searched.

“She was placed in the rear of a police car where she produced a plastic bag from her bra, also a Nokia mobile phone, £95 cash and a Halifax saver card.”

The bag was found to contain 28 wraps of crack cocaine and 23 wraps of heroin, worth a total of £510.

The phone was found to have been in contact with a ‘Paddy line’ phone and 2,167 messages had been sent from it in a three-week period.

A phone connected to the ‘Paddy line’ had contacted it 465 times during that period.

Burton and Hanson both pleaded guilty to two charges involving being concerned in supplying heroin and cocaine and possessing the stun gun.

Hanson, formerly of Cadfael Way, Shrewsbury, also admitted possessing cocaine and heroin with intent and being concerned in supplying those drugs.

Frank Dillon, defending, said that the defendants “had effectively been running a call centre of behalf of others”.

He explained that Burton, whose previous convictions including possessing drugs, had had a gambling addiction “which explains why he was easily led into this activity for financial gain".

Mr Dillon said Burton also had an alcohol addiction and health problems.

Defence barrister, Peter Wilson, said that Hanson, who has no previous convictions, is “remorseful and regretful. She knows the harm drugs can cause. She became involved to support her own habit.’

He said that Hanson, who had been badly hit by the loss of her parents, has been drug free since her arrest and intends working as a drugs counsellor after her release.

“She hopes to help others not to make the same mistakes she made,” he explained.

Sentencing them Judge David Swinnerton said that Burton had been manning the graft phone for financial gain and was aware of the scale of the operation.

He said that Hanson had become involved because of her drug addiction.

He said: "You were very heavily involved in the joint supply from Liverpool to Shrewsbury."

The judge added she had also been manning the phone which was “a very busy and active drugs supply line.”