Leroy Parris was spared a prison sentence after being ‘spooked’ by police at McDonald’s but soon returned to his old ways
Leroy Parris pictured when he was jailed in 2014(Image: Merseyside Police)
A judge warned a three-time convicted drug dealer “let this case be the last time you turn up in the dock of a crown court” only a year before he was put behind bars for nearly a decade. Leroy Parris was spared a prison sentence after being “spooked” by police officers in a McDonald’s car park following a night out on Mathew Street.
Having then sped away in his vehicle, PCs ultimately found no evidence linking him to wider crime when they belatedly caught up with him.
But, within months, he had returned to his old ways and was caught red-handed with a stash of weapons and a consignment of £70,000 of heroin and crack cocaine in the back of a Land Rover.
Liverpool Crown Court heard this week that a Merseyside Police investigation, codenamed Operation Disco, targeted drug dealing activity within the L8 area between October 2024 and January 2025. Surveillance conducted over the course of these four months identified Parris, Escoffrey and Nicholls as being involved in a “county lines type model” which supplied heroin and crack cocaine to users at street level.
Stephen McNally, prosecuting, detailed how they used the former’s partner’s address on Earle Road in Wavertree as the “hub of the enterprise”, from which the organised crime group “conducted its business”. They were seen attending this property on “most days” before personally selling illicit substances to customers from the house itself and on nearby streets.
Activity on the gang’s “graft phone” was shown to have been consistent with the equivalent of around 6.8kg of class A drugs, “worth somewhere in the region of £700,000”, being supplied over the course of a year. “Flare messages” which were used to advertise their wares for sale, examples of which included “on”, “about” and “on bro with heavy”, would be broadcast to up to 50 contacts at a time.
Mr McNally told the court: “It is described as a busy and sophisticated operation. It showed hourly activity, demonstrating an active and busy line.”
On one occasion, on October 1 last year, Parris was observed visiting Earle Road carrying a black rucksack before Escoffrey, of Shakespeare Avenue in Kirkby, attended around half an hour afterwards. When Nicholls then arrived around 15 minutes later, the three men left in a Vauxhall Insignia which was being driven with false number plates.
Raymond Escoffrey, of Shakespeare Avenue in Kirkby, aged 41(Image: Merseyside Police)
The car was thereafter driven to Banner Street in Wavertree, where an unknown woman walked towards the vehicle and engaged in an exchange with the occupants. The defendants subsequently returned to Earle Road, at which stage the graft number was used to send a bulk message out to 33 contacts while connected with a cell mast covering the same area.
This “pattern of behaviour that would be repeated on subsequent occasions”, including one on November 21 which saw Parris, of Carter Street in Toxteth, and Nicholls, of Princes Road, supply drugs to a man in an alleyway. Mr McNally added: “The investigation ultimately culminated with arrests on Saturday, the 4th of January 2025, when officers unconnected to the ongoing investigation came across the address at Earle Road.
“In short, officers passing the address noticed that the front door of the property appeared to have been left open and made enquiries. All three defendants were present within. In the rear garden, there was a Land Rover vehicle. Enquiries identified that it was bearing false plates, which, in turn, led to the arrests and the recovery of class A controlled drugs from that vehicle.”
With Escoffrey having been handcuffed by officers and Nicholls arrested in the back garden, Parris began to struggle with the PCs who were detaining him and attempted to jump over a fence in order to escape. Mr McNally continued: “As Mr Parris struggled with the officers, he shouted to Escoffrey and Nicholls to make good their escape, saying to them, ‘get off, leave these to me’. Indeed, while the officers were dealing with Mr Parris, both Escoffrey and Nicholls took the opportunity to get off and ran from the premises, making good their escapes.”
The organised crime group’s graft phone was subsequently recovered from the premises, while 700g of crack cocaine, worth up to £60,000, and 138g of heroin, valued at £9,170, was located within a rucksack in the boot of the Land Rover. The keys to a BMW car were meanwhile found inside the pocket of a Berghaus jacket belonging to Parris, with the vehicle then being located on nearby Fearnside Street.
A stun gun which was discovered in the rear was said to have been “in good condition, functional and fully charged”. An air rifle “in good condition and in working order”, having been successfully test fired, was meanwhile seized from a storage container within the garden of the Earle Road address.
Nicholls was ultimately located by police in a flat above a restaurant on Prenton Road West, Wirral, on January 15 this year. Escoffrey was then arrested at an address on Winstone Road in Dovecot five days later on January 20.
Raymond Nicholls, of Princes Road, aged 38(Image: Merseyside Police)
Parris has a total of 24 previous convictions for 39 offences, including a two-year detention and training order for supplying class A drugs in 2001 following a series of early morning raids across South Liverpool. In 2014, he was then handed six years for possession of class A drugs with intent to supply in 2014.
The ECHO previously reported at the time that armed police shot the tyres of his 4×4 during an incident on October 30 2013 after he had tried to ram an officer’s car. The then 30-year-old had to be tasered before he was eventually detained.
It came after Parris was seen carrying a Clarins bag from his then home on North Hill Street and driving away in his BMW and heading to a friend’s house on Granby Street. The two men then left for a scrapyard without the bag, which was subsequently found to contain more than a kilo of heroin in three blocks, drugs with a street value of nearly £80,000.
Parris was thereafter received 33 months for possession of a firearm in 2018. The now 41-year-old then remained out of trouble for several years before appearing before the same court in April 2024 for dangerous driving.
The ECHO reported on this occasion that police patrols spotted his 68-plate Mercedes A180 travelling on Water Street in Liverpool city centre at around 4am on April 23 2023. Parris was then followed onto the Strand by the carrier van, after which he turned left onto Blundell Street and then into McDonald’s.
Emily Land, appearing for the prosecution on this occasion, described how he went on to complete a lap of the car park before “driving off at high speed in what appeared to be an attempt to evade the police”. The dad subsequently continued onto Jamaica Street, heading in the direction of Parliament Street before mounting the pavement as he drove along Brick Street towards St James Street.
Officers then lost sight of the vehicle, Parris having also ran a red light as he made his escape. His car was subsequently located on Boyton Court in Wavertree, with a sniffer dog helping to trace him to the address on nearby Earle Road.
Following his arrest, he admitted he had been the driver having been “out on Mathew Street” but gave no comment to detectives under interview. Ken Heckle, defending, said during this hearing his client had been below the legal limit for alcohol when breathalysed following his latest brush with the law and had been driving “perfectly legally” beforehand.
He added: “It is a unique dangerous driving case, in the sense that in most cases the police initially go to stop somebody because there is something wrong with their car or they have driven badly or they are wanted. None of those things occurred in this case. From start to finish, no blue light or klaxon was used. It is somewhat bizarre. It is perhaps his past that they were interested in.
“He goes into McDonald’s and drives very foolishly. He wanted to go somewhere very public. He was anticipating that he would be flashed and stopped in the McDonald’s car park. That did not happen, and he just carried on. He was a bit spooked by that. The whole thing was over in a matter of seconds.
“He knew he had had a couple of drinks, but he was a bit confused as to why they wanted to follow him and stop him and why they didn’t do that. He accepts that he has made this poor decision, but then he stops close to where he lives and walks home.
“It is as simple and plain as that. He did not actually fail to stop, because they never actually flashed him or made a request for him to stop. That was a foolish mistake for him to make. I accept that he has a serious criminal record, but not for this type of offence. He has been out of trouble since 2018. He was putting a bad record behind him.”
Parris admitted dangerous driving and was handed an 18-month community order with 100 hours of unpaid work and a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 25 days, as well as being told to complete a thinking skills programme. Sentencing, Recorder Peter Cowan told him: “There is a vibrant nightlife in Liverpool. Pedestrians were around. You chose to drive onto the pavement. You chose to overtake cars in a dangerous manner and drive through a red light.
“Why did you do that? You had seen the police vehicle and had a guilty conscious, because you had had something to drink. Ironically, you were not over the limit for drink driving. You made the foolish and rash decision to drive away. No injury or damage was caused, more by luck than judgement. When you drive like this, you take a risk that you could kill somebody.
“You seem to have engaged in some fairly serious criminality, for which you have been punished. Rest assured, I am not going to sentence you on your record. I am impressed by the fact that your last conviction was back in 2018. Now you have reached your 40s, you may be finally mature enough to keep out of trouble.
“I do accept that you feel remorse for what you have done and recognise that this is something that should not have happened. I am giving you a chance. I hope you will take that chance. Please let this case be the last time you turn up in the dock of a crown court.”
Parris was also banned from driving for a year as a result of this conviction. Anthony Barraclough, representing him during his latest court appearance on Tuesday, told the court: “This is a man with a terrible record and previous convictions for similar offending. He has some good points. We all know that problems with the family and children, and so on, take second place against the seriousness of quite high level street dealing.”
All three defendants admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine and possession of heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply. Wearing a black Puma t-shirt in the dock, Parris, who also pleaded guilty to possession of a prohibited weapon and possession of a firearm when prohibited for life, was jailed for nine years.
Leroy Parris, of Carter Street, aged 41(Image: Merseyside Police)
Escoffrey was handed eight-and-a-half years, with the 41-year-old having also admitted escaping from lawful custody. Nicholls similarly pleaded guilty to escaping from lawful custody but remained absent from court as he was locked up for eight years and eight months.
Sentencing, Judge Charlotte Crangle said: “It is clear from the drugs recovered that these were conspiracies which were intended to continue into the future, had it not been for the fact of these two officers stumbling across the base of your operations. It is clear that this was a well established graft line that would no doubt have been operating prior to the indictment period. This is, therefore, a snapshot into the extent of your criminality.
“You also have relevant previous convictions to a lesser or greater degree. You had all been under surveillance for some time, and you had been observed on a number of days to be conducting a joint drug dealing operation.
“This operation involved the supply of both crack cocaine and heroin directly to users. Purely coincidentally, two officers seeing the front door open approached the property thinking it might have been burgled.”
Judge Crangle said of the weapons: “These were clearly part and parcel of your drug dealing enterprise. Whether to be used to protect yourself or to enforce debts or threats if necessary, it matters not.
“You, Mr Parris, created a diversion by attempting to run away. While you were quickly caught, you shouted to your co-defendants, urging them to run while you took care of the officers. They did exactly that, making their escape, Mr Escoffrey still in handcuffs.
“As is often the case, you have been referred to as good dads, partners and friends. It is clear that you have another side to you, and you have used your time in custody so far constructively. It is to be hoped that continues.
“As always, it is your children and family who are innocent but will suffer most from your absence. Nonetheless, involvement in the supply of drugs in the quantities in this case is an extremely serious offence. You contributed to degradation and human misery.”
Parris, Escoffrey and Nicholls could now be ordered to repay their ill-gotten gains under the Proceeds of Crime Act.