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A couple who made tens of thousands of pounds through their drug dealing business have been given suspended prison sentences.
Police found cannabis worth up to £5,400 in street deals when they raided the home of Carla Simpson, 34, and Joshua Nelson, 32, said Beth Richardson, prosecuting.
Financial detectives later discovered that £68,600 had flowed through the couple’s bank accounts, despite them declaring to the tax authorities that their only income was state benefits, and on Simpson’s phone police found a message indicating the pair were selling cannabis.
“You were clearly making a lucrative little employment in drug dealing,” Judge Simon Hickey told the pair.
Simpson and Nelson, both of Oak Tree Close, Eggborough, each pleaded guilty to possessing cannabis with intent to supply it to others.
Each was given a nine-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months on condition they each do 20 days’ rehabilitative activities.
Simpson, who was seven months pregnant when she appeared in the dock of York Crown Court, was ordered to do six months’ drug rehabilitation as well.
The judge said he would have ordered Nelson to do unpaid work but could not because of Nelson’s state of health.
He suspended the prison sentence because neither had offended since the police raid in 2023, neither had any previous convictions for drug dealing and Simpson's pregnancy.
Lawyers for both did not give any mitigation after the judge said he would suspend the prison sentence.
Ms Richardson said neither defendant was at home when police went to the property rented in Simpson’s name in Oak Tree Close at 10am on July 18, 2023. Officers found three-quarters of a kilo of cannabis and drug dealing paraphernalia. They returned at 12.45pm to find Simpson and Nelson in and arrested both.
The drugs were worth between £4,320 and £5,400 if sold directly to drug users.
Financial experts investigated the couple’s finances and discovered that between January 2022 and January 2024, Nelson’s bank account had received £23,000 in bank transfers from other people and £3,000 in cash deposits. Simpson’s bank accounts had received £40,000 in bank transfers from other people and £2,600 in cash between December 2021 and January 2024, said Ms Richardson.
Interviewed by police, Nelson claimed £2,000 in his bank account came from a state benefits’ back payment, as had the £275 cash police found on him and seized when he was arrested.
The judge confiscated the £275 at the request of the prosecution, but the CPS and police did not ask for a criminal assets confiscation hearing to seize any other money from the couple.