Drug suppliers get sentences reduced (From Warrington Guardian)

Drug suppliers get sentences reduced

APPEAL Court judges have this week slashed the 'manifestly excessive' sentence of a Crewe man jailed for his part in a plot to supply thousands of pounds worth of heroin and cocaine across Cheshire.

Drug addicts Stephen McCarthy, aged 33, of Gresty Road, Crewe, and Craig Gaffney, 31, of Macclesfield, were both sentenced at Chester Crown Court in September of last year for two counts of conspiracy to supply class A drugs.

McCarthy, who was convicted of the drugs offences after a trial, was originally sentenced to a total of ten years - eight for the drugs offences and another two for an unrelated burglary to which he pleaded guilty.

His sentence was slashed to a total of eight years on Tuesday at the Appeal Court.

Gaffney, who had admitted the drugs conspiracy counts but had had a limited involvement in the operation, had his sentence reduced from nine to seven years.

Mr Justice Gray, sitting at London's Appeal Court with Lord Justice Pill and Sir Ian Kennedy, ruled that both the sentences for the drugs offences were too high for the level of involvement in the operation.

He told how Gaffney's Macclesfield home, which had been used for a month as a den for the cutting up and distribution of the drugs, was raided by police in April last year.

The officers discovered cocaine with a street value of between £15,000 and £20,000 and heroin valued at between £2,500 and £5,000.

Mr Justice Gray said McCarthy, whose previous convictions do not include the supplying of drugs, and Gaffney were classed as low-level retailers and had been placed in the wrong sentencing bracket.