York | Archive | 2001 | March | 15
From the Evening Press, first published Thursday 15th Mar 2001.
A prison officer listened in on conversations between inmates to build up a sizeable list of contacts in the drug dealing underworld, a court heard.
Vincent Hill, 41, from Huntington, York, jotted down telephone numbers mentioned by convicted criminals at Armley Prison, in Leeds, in a bid to trade Ecstasy.
Guy Kearl, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court how Hill was "caught red-handed" with the Class A tablets with a street value of £50,000.
Hill, a former army officer, denies four counts of possessing a controlled drug with the intent to supply.
He was arrested by undercover officers who had been watching his movements towards the end of March 1999.
"At that time he was employed as a prison officer and he used this to gain contacts in the underground world of drug dealers, Mr Kearl told the court.
"That allowed him to trade in a significant quantity of Ecstasy tablets on two occasions.
"He took a chance, established contact and traded on those two occasions as a supplier of Ecstasy.
"Unfortunately for him, having decided to play the game, when he rolled the dice, he lost because he was caught red-handed selling or attempting to sell on the drugs."
He added: "Who knows why he did it. Perhaps he did it for the money or because he was fed up with seeing people with more than him."
The barrister went on to list the series of events leading up to Hill's arrest by undercover officers working for a national crime squad.
He said Hill had picked up 5,000 Ecstasy tablets, in five separate bags each containing 1,000 tables, at a garden centre just outside Leeds, before he travelled to Doncaster Station where he was to sell them on.
"He offered to sell those 5,000 tablets to two people who turned out to be undercover police officers," Mr Kearl told the jury.
Later the court heard from one of the two undercover officers, who was hidden by panels to protect his identity, and was only referred to as "Robbie".
The officer, who was working with the National Crime Squad on March 25, 1999, told the court how he and a female undercover colleague met Hill at a cafe on Platform 3A of Doncaster Railway Station.
He recalled the conversation he and his colleagues had with Hill, detailing an exchange in which they spoke about "Little Fellas" (Ecstasy) and the 10,000 "Gelt" (£10,000) which was to be the price of the drugs.
The trial continues.
Updated: 12:21 Thursday, March 15, 2001
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