A woman secretly funded her lavish lifestyle of designer handbags and foreign holidays by selling heroin and crack cocaine.
Engineer and university graduate Danielle Stafford had a long-running "additional cash income stream" but was caught by chance when police spotted her speeding. Stafford's phone constantly rang or pinged up with messages related to the supply of drugs after she was arrested - and police later found nearly £27,000 in cash and drugs worth £33,600 in her home.
The 29-year-old was "awash with cash from her drug dealing business" and police found luxuries including nine watches and three expensive Louis Vuitton handbags in her home. Stafford admitted to three offences of being concerned in supplying heroin, crack cocaine and cannabis and another of possessing cash as criminal property between October 2017 and May 2020.
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Originally Stafford denied nine offences and a trial started with the prosecution opening its case. But Stafford suddenly changed her pleas to guilty on four charges. Hull Crown Court heard police recovered text messages on Stafford's phone beginning in October 2017. But her illicit activities had gone under the police's radar until they pulled over her speeding Audi at around 7.30pm on May 12 2020 in Hull.
Police could smell cannabis coming from the inside of the car and this aroused their suspicions. She "immediately lied" and told police: "I'll be honest, I've got this" and handed police a small silver wrap containing two buds of cannabis. But officers searched her and found further bags of cannabis on her. And on the way to the police station, Stafford was seen fidgeting with her jogging bottoms and was asked if she had more drugs hidden.
She said: "Yes, but it's not mine and I don't know what it is. I shoved it down my joggers when you pulled me." Stafford pulled out from between her legs a bag containing a large amount of small bags of cocaine. There were 56 wraps of crack cocaine, valued at £2,800.
Her three-bedroom end-terrace home in Cottingham was searched after police forced entry. A glass jar with plastic bags inside was found hidden behind a bag of coal bricks in a coal bunker in the rear garden. There were 270 wraps of crack cocaine, valued at £13,500, and 205 wraps of heroin, valued at £4,100, in the jar. However, Stafford denied knowledge of them.
Hull Live reported herbal cannabis valued at £2,500 was found in an open, empty banana box on a living room table. She denied it belonged to her. Two glass jars contained cannabis valued at £370 and police also found weighing scales, a large amount of cash and more food bags. She admitted these belonged to her.
Ecstasy tablets and thousands in cash were found in her bedroom, and more cash totalling £7,580 was found in a safe but she denied it was hers. And in an upstairs box room, cash bundles, one of which totalled over £9,000, were also found.
Examination of Stafford's bank accounts revealed "she clearly had an additional stream of cash income" apart from her monthly wages from working for Swift Group. Holidays had been taken but there was no trace from her bank account of her buying foreign currency or making purchases overseas.
Stafford had bought her home in March 2016 for £124,999 in her sole name with a mortgage, as well as a second property two years later without a mortgage for £68,500 in equal shares with her aunt. Mr Bashir said: "Even with rental or lodgings allowances, neither property was able to provide any significant source of income to justify the cash found in the house."
During police interviews Stafford, Hallgate, Cottingham, claimed a man from Liverpool had been staying with her on and off and that he had telephoned her to say he had left something at her home. When she got home, there was a large amount of cannabis, and when he asked her to take it to him, she said she did not feel comfortable doing so.
She claimed he asked her just to bring a bag which was there and, in a panic, she grabbed a bag and was driving to meet him. Stafford denied she or the man were dealing drugs but later admitted she would drive to Liverpool and bring him back to Hull. She denied knowledge of the large amounts of cash and claimed she was looking after it for the man.
The court heard she was an "enthusiastic" cannabis dealer and progressed to becoming a class A cocaine dealer. Mr Bashir said: "She had somehow managed to avoid her drug dealing activities coming to the attention of the police for a substantial period of time.
"The natural result of this was that she was able to accumulate a substantial amount of wealth, including purchasing an investment property, a house to rent. Cash found in her home address amounted to £26,917. The amount, type and value of drugs found at her home were substantial. It is, frankly, absurd to suggest that they were for her personal use or even belonged to some other unknown third party. The drugs alone were street valued at £33,600.
"Danielle Stafford has been associated with the supply of class A and class B drugs for a significant period of time. Her wages were paid into the bank account but were left to accrue because she never withdrew any cash for her day-to-day expenditure. She didn't need to because she was awash with cash from her drug dealing business. She was able to leave her salary to accrue, which she used to invest in property."
Sentencing was adjourned for reports and Stafford, who has no previous convictions, was allowed conditional bail. She has previously spent lengthy periods in custody but was later allowed bail.
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