A grandad busted with more than 400g of cocaine said he used the drug as a ‘treat’ because he worked hard and ‘needs a blowout’.
Michael Wainwright, 44, used the excuse before he came clean about how he got involved in the narcotics trade.
He started taking drugs ‘as a social habit with friends’ but then it became a problem which ‘spun out of control’, his lawyer said.
He ‘eventually got into debt and began supplying drugs in order to pay that debt off’, Hull Crown Court heard.
But the gas subcontractor ended up ‘playing a leading role’, creating his own ‘profitable enterprise’, the judge said.
He said this was clear by how Wainwright’s house was ‘lavishly furnished’, along with with his two Audis, a Vauxhall Astra, two motorcycles and an inflatable boat.
When police searched his home, in Kingswood, Hull, they found 408.6g of cocaine and 533g of ketamine.
They also discovered £41,335 hidden under the seat of a van and £1,455 on top of a microwave in his kitchen.
Some £2,660 was found stashed in the pockets of a Northern Gas work outfit.
Two blocks of cocaine, with a purity of around 85%, were estimated to have a street value of £11,280. They had been hidden in a woolly hat on the van’s dashboard.
The ketamine was left in a rucksack under the passenger seat, with a street value of £10,660.
Prosecutor Stephen Robinson said: ‘He was heavily involved in the supply of drugs. There was an expectation of substantial financial gain and large amounts of cash were recovered.’
Defence lawyer Olivia McGeeney stressed that not all of the cash or vehicles found was from Wainwright’s illegal activity, as he had kept his job throughout.
She said: ‘His employers have said that his job will still be open for him when he leaves custody.
‘He has stopped associating with those friends he was with before and has changed his life for the better. His wife is disappointed that he finds himself where he is.’
Wainwright admitted possessing cocaine and ketamine with intent to supply and possessing cash as criminal property on December 9, 2020. He was jailed for eight years.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
