TWO Workington drug addicts were preyed upon by Merseyside gang members and had their home 'cuckooed' during a county lines supply enterprise.

Police uncovered the illegal roles of David Albert Harrison, 50, and 49-year-old Alison Winn on June 18, 2019.

At around noon, police officers executed a search warrant at the pair’s Scalebeck Court home in Workington. “Entry was forced,” prosecutor Wayne Jackson told Carlisle Crown Court.

“At one stage as they saw each other and passed, Winn was heard by officers to say ‘Dave, I haven’t plugged it. It’s in between my legs’.”

This described her attempt to hide a package internally. Winn told an officer she had “hurt herself” trying to do so because the package was large.

Both Winn and Harrison were arrested. “A search of the bedroom revealed a bag containing smaller snap-sealed bags,” said Mr Jackson.

A total of 44.1g of 26 per cent purity heroin was recovered. This was worth £900 to £1,800 'as found' and up to £2,200 if sold on the street.

A Samsung phone and a smaller handset with a cracked screen were also seized.

Winn and Harrison gave no comment interviews and had a number of past convictions to their name. They later admitted being concerned in the supply of class A heroin, and possessing it with intent to supply.

Winn was sentenced at the crown court in 2010 for class B and C supply crimes, while Harrison was handed a lengthy jail term in 1997 for violence.

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But their respective barristers told how the pair had been preyed upon by those higher up the criminal chain who used a county lines phone. “The expert (police) witness says they have been cuckooed,” said Brendan Burke, for Harrison.

“We all know about the wretched nature of these kinds of defendants and the way they are predated upon,” he said. “They are doing it to fund heir own habit.”

Kim Whittlestone, for Winn, said she had got involved after racking up a £2,000 drug debt but had not met the main perpetrators. “She helped facilitate by dealing with messages that came through to that phone.”

Judge Nicholas Barker opted to suspend 24-month prison sentences for two years.

“By rights you should be going to prison today,” Judge Barker told the pair.

“These county lines drug dealing gangs are a menace — a menace to everyone.

“It seems that virtually every member of the chain is there under coercion and exploitation. No doubt those who come from Liverpool to Workington were doing so to pay off a debt under fear and reprisal if they didn’t undertake it.”

But the judge added: “These county lines operations can’t work unless the likes of you are there to facilitate it.”

The pair must also complete rehabilitation and 180 hours’ unpaid work each as part of their punishment.

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