A struggling Wigan hairdresser, who smuggled £395,000 worth of cocaine from the Caribbean in a bid to save her failing business, has been jailed for six years.
Nigerian-born mother-of-three Nneka Fazackerley, 35, of Wigan Lower Road, Standish Lower Ground claims she was hired by a mystery man via Facebook to smuggle the class A drugs.
She pleaded guilty to the importation of 2.6 kilos of 100% pure cocaine at Gatwick Airport on August 7.
Fazackerley had just flown in from St. Lucia with her daughter’s boyfriend, aged twenty, but the pair were stopped by customs men before boarding their connecting flight to Manchester.
After her handbag tested positive for cocaine Customs retrieved her suitcase and hidden among tins of powdered baby milk and powdered ice tea was the cocaine wrapped in a plastic bag in a plastic container.
Prosecutor Mr. Hamish Reid told Croydon Crown Court: “The defendant, together with a man, arrived in the UK from St. Lucia in transit. They were going to be flying to Manchester.
“They were stopped and initially failed to acknowledge each other.
“She had gone into the green channel and her handbag, when swabbed, gave a reading for cocaine and she said she did not know how that could happen.
“She said she had not been forced to carry anything to the country.
“Her bags were examined and inside were tins of powdered baby milk and powdered ice tea as well as plastic containers,” added Mr. Reid.
After the “swallow size” plastic bag of cocaine was found Fazackerley was arrested along with her daughter’s boyfriend who also had traces of cocaine on his luggage.
“She said she had financial problems. She ran a hairdressing salon that was in some difficulty,” explained the prosecutor.
“She was sent to St. Lucia knowing she would be carrying back something illegal in her bags, she knew it would be drugs, but not what drugs.”
Her daughter’s boyfriend was also quizzed, but eventually released without charge.
“He said she received telephone calls in St. Lucia and would walk away from him and would go away on her own.”
The boyfriend, a St. Lucian native, claimed he travelled to the island to visit his mother, but bad weather made this impossible.
Fazackerley told investigators she was happy to travel with him because he knew the island well.
She was charged the same day at Crawley Police Station and immediately pleaded guilty the following morning before Mid Sussex magistrates.
“As a courier she is anticipating a custodial sentence,” Fazackerley’s lawyer Mr. Nick Brown told the court. “She started a hairdressing salon that went bad.
“She has personal debts of two to three thousand pounds and started the business in very tough conditions.”
The first-time offender has daughters aged fifteen and sixteen from her first marriage and a four year-old daughter from her second marriage, which was described as “violent and controlling.”
“She was at rock bottom when approached by a man on Facebook to take something back from St. Lucia and he paid for the tickets,” added Mr. Brown.
“She has seen first hand the effects drugs can have on people, being in prison and with hindsight would never have got involved.”
Judge John Tanzer told Fazackerley: “The only possible sentence that can be passed is an immediate custodial sentence.
“You are a woman who has a number of difficulties.
“Any time you spend in custody will feel a long time with your medical problems and being kept away from your family.
“You were a woman of some vulnerability and were no doubt exploited.”
The judge also made a five-year travel restriction order.
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