Heroin addict arranged to have £35k worth of skunk posted to her home
Geraldine Grant, already imprisoned, was handed an additional year in prison at Liverpool Crown Court.
An "exploited" heroin addict has been jailed after she agreed to have two and a half kilos of super-strength skunk cannabis, worth an estimated £35,500 ($47,612), posted to her home.
Geraldine Grant's defence argued that she was used by a violent drugs gang who arranged for a package of the Class B drug to be delivered to the house in Widnes, Merseyside.
The package, in the name of Peter Evans, was delivered on 19 January and the 54-year-old was arrested but claimed she thought it was only going to contain tobacco.
But officers at Gatwick Airport had already removed the drugs and Grant later admitted the importation of cannabis at Liverpool Crown Court on Wednesday (29 November).
Defending Grant, Simon Christie said her home had been commandeered by a dangerous drugs gang called the "J Team" and that she was a lifetime drug addict who had been "exploited".
"She has been unable to shake off the people who supply controlled drugs," he said according to the Liverpool Echo.
"It was her home that was effectively taken over by a drug team known as the J Team, who are well-known to the police.
"They are dangerous people – people who need people like this defendant to assist them.
"Because of her addiction, her background, she is an easy target. Her home has not been her home for a significant period of time."
Police found a Kinder egg containing heroin in Grant's house, for which she was fined by magistrates, and the court heard that she had six previous convictions for eight offences all linked to drugs.
In fact Grant, appearing via videolink from HMP Styal, was actually on bail for dealing crack cocaine at the time of the illicit delivery for which she was jailed for five years in April.
Judge Denis Watson, QC accepted Grant was "vulnerable" but being on bail aggravated the charge.
"Two and a half kilos of skunk cannabis is a substantial quantity, worth in street deals certainly somewhere in the order of £35,000," he said according to the Echo.
Grant was handed a one-year prison sentence which she must serve consecutively after her current prison sentence.
