Police seized more than £100,000 of drugs from a cabbie who kept his stash in an Aldi carrier bag
Paul Duggan, of Beckwith Street in Birkenhead, aged 45
A taxi driver had a secret sideline in selling “Donald Trump-shaped” ecstasy pills and kept his drugs stashed in an Aldi carrier bag. Police seized illicit class A substances potentially worth more than £100,000, including a kilo of cocaine, from Paul Duggan after he was caught using a phone registered in his own name to conduct his illegal business.
Liverpool Crown Court heard today, Tuesday, that the 45-year-old, of Beckwith Street in Birkenhead, used his own personal number, an EE account which was linked directly to him, as a “graft line” which supplied both cocaine and ecstasy across Merseyside between March and August of this year. The device was also found to have “co-located with the movements” of his vehicle, with the defendant having been a registered Hackney cab drive in the Wirral area.
Jonathan Keane, prosecuting, described how messages recovered from Duggan’s phone documented “frequent transactions for ecstasy tablets and high purity cocaine”. In one outgoing text, he told one customer who had seemingly failed to pay up: “You’re taking me for a divvy, you know. Five weeks this.”
These activities led to police executing a search warrant at his home on August 6, with Duggan confessing to officers that there was a “large quantity of drugs in the address”. This included a stash of white and pink pills which was recovered from one bedroom and the recovery of an Aldi bag from another, subsequently found to contain a set of digital scales, 29 knotted packages of white powder and a further 16 parcels of white rocks.
A total of £620 in cash was also seized from the property, with further monies and four “Donald Trump shaped pills” being discovered when his vehicle was searched. The total of 1.163kg of cocaine which was recovered from Duggan’s property was said to have been worth between £41,450 and £89,850, while 1,323 MDMA tablets which he was found to be in possession of were valued from £6,615 to £13,230.
Duggan has no previous convictions. John Rowan, defending, told the court: “In recent times, Mr Duggan has struggled in terms of his own addiction to class A drugs. He knows, because he has personal experience of it, the devastation and misery that class A drugs cause.
“It is that long standing addiction which has resulted in him having issues with his employment and issues with financial problems, resulting in him taking an opportunity which, since his arrest, he has deeply and bitterly regretted. He had been approached by someone he knew, who was involved themselves in supplying Mr Duggan with drugs, and was given an opportunity to earn money by effectively and primarily bagging up drugs and passing them back to that individual.
“Mr Duggan then took the opportunity himself to start supplying directly to users, both cocaine and MDMA. Mr Duggan tells me that he was barely surviving with what he was doing. He was not living any sort of luxury lifestyle and was not benefiting substantially.
“It has been a wake up call for him, in terms of his own drugs use. He is currently drug free and is motivated to engage with support to sustain that situation.
“He has a large group of supporters with him today. They are shocked that Mr Duggan appears before the court charged with such serious offences. Mr Duggan regrets not reaching out, perhaps through shame.”
Duggan admitted possession of cocaine and ecstasy with intent to supply and being concerned in the supply of cocaine and ecstasy. Appearing in the dock wearing a black t-shirt and sporting long brown hair, he nodded as he was jailed for six years as some of his supporters in the public gallery held their heads in their hands.
Sentencing, Judge Robert Trevor Jones said: “People who involve themselves in the supply of controlled drugs can expect to go prison. Certainly, when those drugs are class A drugs, they can expect significant sentences.
“You, no doubt, fell into the very same pattern of people who start off using and abusing controlled drugs, only to find that they cannot afford their habits, and so they cross that line to supply. Of course, you, in turn, supply other users. No doubt, a proportion of those will cross that line, in time, to come and possibly find themselves where you are now.
“Since this warning shot, it does appear that it has woken you up somewhat. You have been making strides to rid yourself of your previous habit. I hope that you do, and you can put this down as a serious and very sorry aberration in your life.”