A hardworking plumber, who risked delivering £24,000 worth of cocaine to fund the next stage of his business, is beginning a two-year prison sentence today after being stopped by cops exiting the Rotherhithe Tunnel.
Father-of-three Paul Collins, 42, of Northchurch, Daws Street, Walworth, South-East London, agreed a £1,000 fee to courier the drug, in a bid to raise cash for a Kingston College gas course.
He pleaded guilty at Inner London Crown Court (pictured) to possessing 602 gms of cocaine, with intent to supply, on February 11.
Prosecutor Mr. Ben Temple told the court it was 9.30 p.m. when two police officers stopped Collins in his white VW plumber’s van as he exited the tunnel in Bermondsey.
They searched the vehicle and on the front passenger seat found the block of wrapped cocaine in a plastic carrier bag.
Collins was arrested and handcuffed and at Southwark Police Station gave a positive cocaine sample.
“He realises one stupid mistake has blown everything he has worked for,” said Collins’ lawyer Mr. Martin Goudi, describing his client as a hard-working family man trying to make a success of his business.
“It is a great shame to see you back in the dock of a criminal court,” Judge Roger Chapple told Collins, whose first drugs conviction was in the same building nearly twenty years ago.
“Class A drugs wreck lives, causes misery and chaos and engenders crime,” added the Judge, sentencing Collins to two years imprisonment as his family looked down from the public gallery.
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