Five years in prison for Lincoln drug dealer

A drug dealer has been sent to prison for five years following months of hard work by officers from the Lincoln Neighbourhood Policing Teams.

Lincoln Crown Court heard how William Cooke (34) of St Peters Avenue, Moorland in Lincoln, had been found in possession of just over 57g of the Class A drug heroin, worth £2,850, which he intended to supply to drug users. He was also found to be in possession of £1125.22 in bank notes and coins which were, either directly or indirectly, the proceeds of criminal activity.

The drugs and cash were uncovered following a warrant executed at his address on February 9, 2022. The warrant involved officers and PCSOs from the Moorland Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT), the Tactical Support Team (TST), and investigators from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). Cooke was arrested at the scene.

Officers had previously conducted a warrant in September 2021, which resulted in him being remanded and charged with possession with intent to supply a controlled drug of Class A,  two charges of possession with intent to supply a controlled drug of Class B. In November last year, he received a sentence of 21 months, suspended for 24 months, and was released from prison.

On his release he immediately began to deal from his home address, with no regard for the impact his activities would have on the local community, the court was told. Officers built up a further intelligence picture around his activities before successfully conducting the second warrant in February last year.

Community Beat Manager PC Chris Bayes-Walker said: “Drugs have a significant impact on local communities. People living in the areas where drug dealing is taking place can often feel intimidated and fearful, and with drug activity comes other associated crime which can further negatively impact a local area. Everyone has the right to live and work somewhere they feel safe, and we all joined up to the police to try and help people experience that life.

“I’m really happy that we have taken a dealer off the streets in Moorland through our proactive work. This was a real team effort. Through the hard work of the Lincoln Neighborhood Policing Teams (NPT), TST and CID coming together, we have achieved a result which sends a strong message that dealing in our city will not be tolerated. Please be assured that we aren’t stopping here; we will continue to target anyone we believe to be dealing drugs.”

But PC Bayes-Walker said that keeping the streets safe is a community effort, and called on the public to help us to be able to keep helping you.

“We encourage the public to keep reporting activity to us to help build the local intelligence picture and allow us to take action,” he said. “Enforcement activity from the Lincoln NPTs has resulted in an estimated £25,000 of drugs being removed from the street so far this year and we look to continue this success.”

Cooke was remanded into custody until he faced Lincoln Crown Court on 14 March, where he faced one count of possession of class A drugs with intent. He pleaded guilty and received a sentence of three years and nine months.

He was also charged with possession of criminal property, for which he received a 12 month sentence to run concurrently with this Class A conviction.

He was found guilty of two counts of possession of class B with intent, and received two 12 month sentences to run concurrently with his other imprisonment.

Finally, his suspended sentence was activated, and reduced to 15 months to run consecutively.