Son of '90s singer jailed for 10 years after message identified famous dad
A team of specialist investigators identified him from messages about his musician father. An associate within their drug network even sent him a picture of his famous dad and made comments which confirmed their relationship.
Thomas Hooton, the son of The Farm lead singer Peter Hooton, has been jailed and sentenced to 10 years and eight months for the supply of cocaine, ketamine, cannabis and heroin. The 30-year-old drug dealer, who had previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to supply drugs, was using the name "Ownraptor" and quickly became a trusted broker of multi-million-pound drug deals.
Thomas also wrote in messages that he was driving a black Audi A3 and his "arl fella", meaning his dad, had arranged the insurance. Thomas was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court on Friday.
On the back of his arrest by Merseyside's Organised Crime Partnership in April this year, Thomas made the decision to plead guilty. Peter Hooton at a festival in 2016 (Image: West Lothian Courier)
He had been using the messaging service EncroChat to broker his drug deals, which reportedly had the street value of an estimated £1.3 million (€1.49 million). Police were also able to detect that he had been using more than 40 names for contact and had also set up a county lines supply that covered Scotland, north-east and the south of England.
A spokesperson for the National Crime Agency said: "At the very minimum, Hooton was involved in the supply of 42.5kg of cannabis, 3.25kg of heroin, 10kg of cocaine and 1kg of ketamine."
They added: "His messages said he was in possession of around £400,000 (€458,000) and owed £258,000 (€295,000)." The offences which led to his arrest were reportedly between March 26 and June 4 five years ago.
Detective Chief Inspector Lynsay Armbruster said: "It's clear Hooton was involved in organised crime for a long time before he was charged. His criminal and geographical reach will have taken considerable time to establish. His drug supply operations were on an almost daily basis, they were sustained and spanned the UK working with high level criminals."
EncroChat was deactivated in 2020 by a European investigation team.
The Mirror has reached out to Peter Hooton for a comment.
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