By John Connell

Last updated at 11:43, Wednesday, 10 October 2012

Three people sold the illegal drug “plant food” through an online gardening business, Carlisle Crown Court has heard.

Police raids uncovered “thousands of pounds worth” of the drug at a house in Silloth and in a Workington corner shop.

They also found digital scales, price lists and a “bulking agent” used to make the drug go further.

Michael Cox, 28, of Station Road, Workington, Terry Hyde, 29, and Helen Hyde, 31, then of Burnswark Terrace in Silloth, deny five counts of conspiracy to supply a controlled drug between April 2010 and April 2011.

Andrew Ford, prosecuting, said the defendants would claim to have set the business up to trade plant food “but not for human consumption”.

When police raided the house in Silloth and the corner shop on Station Road where Cox lived they found thousands of pounds worth of controlled drugs.

“The defendants were running a business and they were running it together. Each had a job,” Mr Ford said.

The court heard that Helen Hyde was the administrator and Cox – who had “real knowledge of chemicals” – was the whiz kid who handled the software side of the business.

The jury heard that the drugs found had previously been referred to as a “legal high” but were illegal when they were sold.

At the time of the raid Cox and Terry Hyde had been equal partners in an internet business known as chemicalcartel.com which traded online under the name of H and C Garden Supplies.

The court heard that the Hydes, then a married couple with two children, were running their side of the operation out of an office in their attic. Mr Ford said that there were price lists for drugs, jiffy bags, chemicals and scales.

The trial continues.

First published at 11:18, Wednesday, 10 October 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk