A daughter reported her mum to police for dealing drugs because she "had enough" and did not want her own children growing up in the same environment she had.
Grandmother-of-two Lyndley Graham, 55, was sentenced to three years in prison for two counts of supplying class A drugs - the third time she was caught selling drugs.
She was snared as part of Operation Doon in which an undercover officer caught her selling wraps of cocaine and heroin for £20 in November last year.
In a hearing at Hull Crown Court, Graham's daughter said she was worried her mum would end up "in the ground" if she did not go to prison.
She said, Hull Live report s: “It got to the point I saw her doing something and I personally reported her to the police because I had had enough at that point.
“It was either go to prison or in the ground and I chose to come forward and try and give her another chance."
“I had to grow up with it,” she added.
“I’m not letting my own children grow up with it. The last time my son saw her she was not in the greatest of shape and he didn’t like it.”
Graham claimed she would not have fallen back into her drug habit if she was able to return to her hometown of Withernsea to see her daughter.
Instead, she had been placed into shared accommodation with other drug users, where she claimed “it was all around me”, making it hard for her to abstain.
She was given a couple of wraps to sell on the streets of Hull on November 11, 2020, so she could, in her own words, “get my own drugs quicker”.
Unbeknownst to Graham, the person she was selling to was in fact an undercover police officer as part of Operation Doon.
Graham was living in the shared accommodation in Holderness Road after she was released from an 18-month sentence in December 2019 for similar offending.
As part of her licence conditions, she was prohibited from returning to her hometown of Withernsea, as she was a well-known drug dealer in the area.
Judge Mark Bury questioned Graham as to how she fell back into her habit after leaving prison clean of drugs.
“It was all around me,” she said. “It was in the houses and because I couldn’t go back into Withernsea I lived there.
“If I had gone straight home to my daughter I would not have got into drugs.”
Graham’s licence expired on April 17 and she had set her sights on returning to the East Yorkshire coastal town.
However, arrests were being carried out as part of Operation Doon that month and she found herself back behind bars.
“I just wanted to go home to my daughter,” she said.
“I didn’t intent to [get back into drugs]. I didn’t want to. It was just the circumstances.”
Graham, of Crossland Avenue in Hull, has a history of drug addiction and was first imprisoned in 1998 for twelve months for supplying heroin.
She had stayed out of trouble for a number of years since then but admitted to the court that she started using again after her mother passed away eight years ago.
In July 2019, the grandmother-of-two was sentenced to 18 months in prison for supplying crack cocaine and heroin.
After selling drugs to an undercover officer in November 2020, Graham was facing a minimum term of nearly six years behind bars for her third offence.
“You tell me you are clean again,” Judge Bury said.
“Whilst in custody you have been using your time effectively in helping out with the prison estate.
“Prison is no place for you. You are lucky to have a very well adjusted daughter. It is a minor miracle coming from the background she has come from. You should be proud of that.
“You have two grandchildren who I’m sure you would like to see. They would probably like to see you too if you were clean of drugs.
“That has to come from you Ms Graham. No-one can keep you off drugs if you don’t want to be.
“You’re 55 now and you won’t make old bones if you keep on taking drugs.
"The time has come for you to make that decision. Come off drugs, go back to your home in Withernsea, perhaps find a job and try to build bridges with your family.
“The alternative is to take drugs, probably end up supplying, then end up in the dock and some person like me will throw the key away.”
