5 days ago
Undercover police busted them outside a primary school
Undercover police busted them outside a primary school
They were arrested by plain-clothed police officers from the organised crime team
Jayley Rickman (left) and Harry Thompson
A pair of young heroin and cocaine dealers were found operating near a Welsh primary school. When undercover police swooped on Jayley Rickman and Harry Thompson they were found to be carrying a total of 100 individual drug deals and to have sent out text messages to customers shortly before the officers arrived.
Sending the defendants down a judge at Swansea Crown Court told them they would have known exactly what kind of sentence awaited them when they involved themselves in supplying Class A drugs.
Dean Pulling, prosecuting, told the court that on the afternoon of Thursday, June 19, this year police received reports from the public of suspicious activity in Odo Street in the Hafod area of Swansea involving two young males. Plain-clothed police officers from the organised crime team were dispatched to the area in an unmarked car and the court heard they saw the suspects on the steps which lead from the road outside Hafod Primary School down to Cwm Road.
The prosecutor said the officers approached the males and detained 21-year-old Rickman as he sat on the steps. Thompson ran off but the 18-year-old was chased and caught.
Rickman was found with three cocaine deals in his hand and beside him on the steps was a bag containing 37 wraps of heroin and cocaine. When he was searched he was found to have a lock-knife in his pocket along with £70 in cash and an iPhone – the pin for which he refused to divulge. For all the latest court stores sign up to our crime newsletter
Thompson was found with a Nokia burner phone and a coffee jar down his shorts containing 60 individual wraps of heroin and cocaine along with further bags of the drugs. When the Nokia was examined officers found it had been sending out bulk text messages to around 40 contacts relating to the supply of drugs including one saying: "Three for 25 all day". The court heard the last message had been sent out shortly before the police arrived on the scene. In the notes section of the phone was a list of names and figures which appeared to be a so-called "dealer's list" of money owed with one person apparently owing £1,650.
Article continues below
In their subsequent interviews Rickman remained silent while Thompson gave officers a prepared statement denying the offences he had been arrested for before going on to say he had been selling £10 drug deals.
Jayley Rickman, of Ullswater Close, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, had previously pleaded guilty to possession of heroin with intent to supply, possession of crack with intent to supply, and possession of a bladed article when he appeared in the dock for sentencing via videolink from HMP Swansea.
The court heard that in February 2023 the defendant was sentenced to 45 months in prison at Bristol Crown Court for being concerned in dealing crack and heroin in Weston-super-Mare. He was released on licence from that sentence in August 2024 but was recalled back to prison in the November that year following his arrest by Avon and Somerset Police on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs. However he didn't surrender to custody after his recall was ordered and his whereabouts were unknown until he was arrested in Swansea in June this year. His period of recall runs until April 2027.
Harry Thompson, of Heol Fedw, Cwmrhydyceirw, Swansea, had previously pleaded guilty to possession of heroin with intent to supply, possession of cocaine with intent to supply, being concerned in the supply of heroin, and being concerned in the supply of cocaine when he joined his co-accused in the dock via videolink from HMP Cardiff.
He has no previous convictions but the court heard that when he was arrested in Swansea he was on bail to Gwent Police having been arrested on suspicion of being involved in the supply of ketamine and heroin.
Andrew Evans, for Rickman, said when the defendant was released on licence in August last year it had been his desire to put his offending behind him but "he was dogged by the events of his past" and the people who had previously supplied drugs to him on credit "came after him" to recover the debt. He said given the ghosts of his past and the fact he was also himself using cocaine it was "almost inevitable" Rickman would return to dealing.
The advocate said his client understood that were he to be caught dealing Class A drugs for a third time he would receive the mandatory minimum term of seven years in prison – something that was a "daunting prospect" for a 21-year-old.
Alexandra Wilson, for Thompson, said her client was originally from Weston-super-Mare and after school worked in his aunt's café and then spent a year working as a roofer before moving to Swansea to live with his mother. She said at the time of Thompson's arrest he was homeless following a breakdown of his relationship with his mother.
Judge Paul Thomas KC told the defendants they had been caught red-handed supplying Class A drugs on the streets of Swansea in an operation worth thousands of pounds. He told them that when they involved themselves in dealing cocaine and heroin they would have known what kind of sentence awaited them and he told them that if they returned to Class A dealing upon their release they would end up spending what many people consider the best years of their lives locked in a prison.
Article continues below
With discounts for their guilty pleas Rickman was sentenced to four years and four months in prison and Thompson to two years and four months detention in a young offenders institution. Rickman's sentence will be served concurrently with his period of recall. The defendants will serve up half their sentences in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
