A former a supermarket team leader became a heroin dealer after losing her job and relapsing into drug use, a court has heard.
Deborah Stevens and her partner Damian Harris were involved in a significant Class A trafficking operation in Swansea over a period of four months. On the day Harris was arrested he received no fewer than 148 calls on his mobile including 33 after he was arrested.
A judge told them that they and their co-accused Michael Lloyd all knew the effects heroin had on the lives of those addicted to it but had nevertheless involved themselves in the "filthy business" of supplying it.
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Swansea Crown Court heard the dealing came to an end on July 12 this year when officers patrolling the Blaenymaes and Penlan areas of Swansea as part of Operation Sceptre – a specialist operation targeting knife crime and serious offending – became suspicious of the movements of a Renault car.
Tom Scapens, prosecuting, said the vehicle was seen to be driving around the streets for "no apparent reason" and when officers received intelligence that that it may be connected to the drugs trade they stopped it in Glenside Road. In the car were Lloyd and Harris with the former in possession of 19g of heroin, worth around £1,900, while Harris had £600 in cash. Mobile phones were seized from both men.
The court heard Harris was also carrying house keys and a search of his property the following day uncovered 540 wraps of heroin, digital weighing scales, a butterfly knife, and £1,680 in cash. Officers then went looking for Stevens who they believed was linked to Harris and she was arrested later the same day at a different address.
An examination of the defendants' mobile phones revealed messages about drugs and drug supply. The court heard officers found Harris had received 148 calls to his mobile on the day of his arrest alone. Mr Scapens said on Lloyd's phone officers found one message from a contact warning him that "Damo" had been arrested – "something Mr Lloyd already knew as he had been arrested with him". He said messages relating to offering to supply crack and heroin were found on Stevens phone and "it appears she was working with Damian Harris".
Damian Rhys Harris, aged 46, of Heol y Twyn, Pontlliw, and Deborah Ann Stevens, also aged 46, of Woodford Road, Blaenymaes, Swansea, admitted possession of heroin with intent to supply and to being concerned in the supply of heroin while Harris, along with 48-year-old Michael Lloyd, of Cecil Road, Gorseinon, had also pleaded guilty to supplying heroin.
Harris has two previous convictions for five offences including two for possession of heroin with intent to supply from 2011 and 2014. As such he fell to be sentenced as a so-called "third strike" Class A drug dealer. Stevens has no previous convictions.
Lloyd has four previous convictions for four offences including possession of an offensive weapon, battery, and possession of heroin with intent to supply from 2017.
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Jon Tarrant, for Harris, said the defendant had worked as gas fitter before the use of drugs overtook his life.
Andrew Evans, mitigating on behalf of Stevens, said the court may be wondering how a woman of the defendant's age and hitherto clean character came to be before the courts for the first time on such serious charges. He said his client had been a team leader with a large chain of supermarkets but after experiencing bereavements in 2015 had lost her work and "drifted back into drug misuse" and in particular crack cocaine. The advocate said that in some ways the drug trafficking prosecution had been a "watershed moment" for her client and she now wanted to provide the kind of guidance and counselling to others that she had never had.
Hywel Davies, for Lloyd, said his client had been smoking a gram of heroin a day and had become involved in the supply of drugs to fund that habit. He said that during the inevitable custodial sentence he faced the defendant wished to free himself of his addiction.
Judge Paul Thomas QC told the three defendants they all knew the effects of Class A drugs on the lives of those who take them but had involved themselves in the "filthy business" of supplying them nevertheless.
With discounts for their guilty pleas the judge sentenced Harris to six years in prison, Stevens to two years and nine months, and Lloyd to three years and eight months. The defendants will serve up to half those periods in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
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