A former York drug dealer has been jailed after the van he was travelling in was stopped in Askham Lane and officers seized over £3,000 worth of crack cocaine and heroin destined for the streets of the city.

Shayne Garnett, 54, of Norwood Street, Scarborough, who previously lived in York, was arrested in July 2020, along with the driver and another passenger. 

Following a full search of the vehicle, officers recovered heroin which they estimated was worth around £1,200, crack cocaine, and a quantity of cannabis they estimated was worth in excess of £2,000, as well as two mobile phones.

All three were arrested on suspicion of being involved in the supply of class-A drugs.

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The investigation was able to show that despite his initial denials that the drugs were his, conflicting accounts demonstrated that Garnett offered money to the driver to take him to Liverpool to collect the drugs to bring them back to sell in York.

A mobile phone used by Garnett showed conversations relating to the sale of browns and whites, slang terms for heroin and crack cocaine.

On May 16, 2023, Garnett changed his plea to guilty of possessing heroin with intent to supply and possessing cocaine with intent to supply.

He appeared at York Crown Court on Monday, August 7, and jailed for four years.

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His co-defendant and driver of the van, Robert Grafton-Holt, of Burton Stone Lane, York, pleaded guilty to the same offences and was handed a two-year jail sentence suspended for eighteen months in May. 

The third man, the other passenger in the van, was found not guilty on the direction of the Crown Court Judge.