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From business success to drug use then dealing and jail term
Page 14
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8■ haulier who began supplying cocaine and other drugs to maintain Hiis lifestyle is imprisoned for eight years. Cliff Goodwin reports.
5s. HAULIER WHO took drugs to telp with the pressures of running us 10-truck fleet has been jailed or eight years for dealing.
John Pickering launched J&J -laulage with a single vehicle ifter his 2002 release from prison or drug dealing. But Newcastle I3rown Court heard he did not tart taking cocaine himself until us business boomed, forcing him o expand his fleet.
At the height of his addiction le was spending £2.000 a week m drugs. The business, based Lt High Spen near Gateshead, )ought him a Range Rover and a uxury Mercedes; to maintain his lifestyle he began dealing again.
Pickering was caught as part of Northumbria Police's Operation Avalanche which targeted drug activity on Gateshead housing estates When his home in Winlaton was raided last December detectives seized lkg of amphetamine and more than 2,000 amphetamine tablets.
A raid on his business premises unearthed cocaine hidden in a false office ceiling. Robert Adams, prosecuting, told the court: "The estimated value of cocaine and amphetamine was in excess of £100.000."
Pickering, 47. admitted six charges of possessing drugs with intent to supply. He also admitted dealing cocaine, but claimed he was storing the amphetamine for someone he would not name. He was jailed for eight years.
Defending,Stuart Graham said his client had worked hard to make a success of his legitimate haulage firm: -He got onto the slippery slope simply because be was so successful."
After the case Detective Inspector Jamie Pitt described Pickering as a "prominent socalled businessman who involved himself in several areas of crime and who ultimately thought himself above the law".