(Image: North Yorkshire Police)
A North Yorkshire drug dealer who raked in tens of thousands of pounds in cryptocurrency as well as large cash sales, employed runners and bought luxury items has been jailed.
For more than four years Benjamin Ian Dack, 28, peddled cannabis including in front of children and by exploiting a cancer patient, Erin Kitson-Parker, prosecuting, told York Crown Court.
“This defendant had been arrested on five separate occasions and despite the arrests, he continued to supply drugs whilst under investigation,” she said.
He took payment in both cryptocurrency and cash. Police later found he had received £63,927 in cryptocurrency.
Police financial investigators will give details of how much he made through his illegal trade next year, but it is expected to be over £125,000.
Detectives also confiscated several kilos of cannabis that could be worth up to £40,000 in street deals and seized thousands of pounds from him when they arrested him. They also found Rolex watches, one of which he paid for in cash.
“This was buying and selling on a commercial scale,” Judge Simon Hickey told Dack about the cannabis dealing. “You must have had close links to other significant suppliers further up the scale and there was substantial financial gain.”
Dack, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to possessing cannabis with intent to supply it on April 22, 2026, being concerned in the supply of cannabis between February 17, 2022, and April 23, 2026, and having criminal cash.
He was jailed for four years and will return to court next year for an assets confiscation hearing.
Most of the dealing was in Scarborough but there were also links further afield, York Crown Court heard.
Defence barrister Matthew Harding said: “There is little I can say by mitigation on his behalf today.”
Dack’s biggest mitigation was his guilty plea, he said.
Ms Kitson-Parker said Dack advertised his wares and conducted his deals on social media, using Instagram and Telegram, and posted pictures of large supplies of cannabis.
He also advertised for people willing to be runners for him.
On May 19, 2023, he was arrested selling cannabis on a street where children were present.
On January 5, 2024, police spotted him in a black BMW containing 1.8kg of cannabis.
He fled the vehicle but they tracked him down to his parents' house and he tried to escape via the roof, only to be arrested outside a neighbour’s house.
On March 6, 2024, he stank so much of cannabis when travelling on a Scarborough to York train, British Transport Police investigated and found £2,000 in his rucksack.
On April 5, 2024, police discovered he had turned the home of a disabled man with cancer and psychosis into his drug dealing base.
He fled through a window when officers arrived at its front door but was caught.
On April 22, 2026, police stopped him for a motoring offence in Scarborough.
He tried to swallow cannabis and he and his companion tried to hide cannabis-linked items in some bushes to prevent officers finding them.
He has been in custody ever since.
Mr Harding said Dack hoped to find work in the fitness industry when he finishes his prison sentence.