AN OSWESTRY woman who made more than £8,000 for couriering Class A and B drugs in Shropshire and North Wales has been told she only has to pay back £200.

Rebecca Brockhurst, formerly of Chaucer Road in Oswestry, appeared at Mold Crown Court on Thursday, May 30 on a video link from HMP Drake Hall, in Staffordshire.

She has been there since being jailed in December 2023 for her role as a courier, receiving a sentence of five years and four months.

OTHER NEWS:

Judge Rhys Rowlands, overseeing the Proceeds of Crime Act hearing on Thursday morning, heard that Brockhurst, 32, had made £8,327.22 from her role.

An application from the prosecution was made for the sale of a Citroen car belonging to Brockhurst for £200, which was agreed to by her defence John Weate.

Judge Rowlands made the order for the £200 to be paid within three months but acknowledged that it would be done through the police sale of the car.

At her original sentencing, Mr Weate told the court that she is in the full knowledge that she put herself in this position and how it has affected her and her family – as well as her young son.

He said: “She was struggling financially as a single parent and perhaps very naively got involved in the conspiracy.”

There were 12 defendants overall, including Graham Thomas of College Road in Oswestry and Lee Hopgood of Sweeney Drive in Morda.

A court had previously heard the bulk of the case involved a conspiracy to supply class A and B drugs into North Wales in 2022 and 2023 – including cannabis into HMP Berwyn – and the Oswestry area.

The offences displayed "some hallmarks of a county lines operation", with the drugs being supplied by way of a graft phone (the 'AJ line') controlled by the gang's 25-year-old leader Adrian Julienne.

Get in touch

Share your views on this story by sending a letter to the editor. To get in touch email news@bordercountiesadvertizer.co.uk, or fill in the form on this section of our website.

According to the prosecution at the December 2023 sentencing, when Julienne was taken into custody at HMP Berwyn, his operation was taken over by Llangollen-based girlfriend Charlotte Edwards.

Other defendants were from Wrexham and the wider area, as well as Liverpool.

Graham Thomas, a father of four, was jailed for a total of four years for his role in giving Hopgood lifts but had made admissions as early as his police interviews and ‘wanted to put offending behind him’.