From a chippy owner who led police directly to a cannabis garden to a meth dealer who left tens of thousands of pounds of drugs in a taxi, many criminals are the authors of their own demise.
Liverpool courts see a wide range of criminals daily, but in a surprisingly large number of cases, many of those make the police's job much easier by making stupid mistakes.
One man left £35K of meth in the back of a taxi and was eventually caught asleep in a different taxi whilst under the influence of drugs.
READ MORE: Dangerous men every woman in Merseyside needs to know about
Sometimes people just aren't cut out for crime and instead hit the headlines for the their bungling mishaps. Here are just some of the dumbest criminals Liverpool has to offer.
An EncroChat dealer ordered drugs to his home address
Paul Whitney, 44, who used the handle “BulletHawk” when using EncroChat to sell drugs, ordered kilo amounts of heroin to be delivered to his own home in Walton.
READ MORE: Worst street for antisocial behaviour in Merseyside
Merseyside Police raided Whitney’s home on Clocktower Drive on two occasions in 2020 and 2021. On the second raid on March 30, 2021, he was arrested and told officers “it's my birthday, this is a joke.”
Whitney admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine, heroin, ketamine and cannabis and conspiracy to launder money, and was jailed for 14 years and nine months on December 14.
A drug dealer left £35K worth of drugs in the back of a taxi
A prolific drug dealer left £35k of meth inside a TK Maxx bag in the back of a taxi in December last year. Sean O'Neill, 29, of Enfield Road, Ellesmere Port, also accidentally left ketamine and cannabis in the car which he had used to fetch cardboard boxes, believed to contain bottles of GBL - another illegal drug.
He was travelling in a taxi to the Lumiere Building in Manchester when he left behind in a bag holding 181 grams of methylamphetamine, known as crystal meth, 261 grams of ketamine worth £3,680 and 19 grams of cannabis, and a set of scales. Prosecutor David Watson told Liverpool Crown Court O'Neill later rang the cab firm after realising he had left the bag of drugs inside the taxi.
Police waited for him to arrive but he sent another cab to collect them though the driver, who O’Neill used as a runner for drugs and cash, was not allowed to do so. He was not arrested until June 21, where he was apprehended near a gym in Wirral after falling asleep in a taxi under the influence of drugs.
O’Neil pleaded guilty to eight offences involving possessing methylamphetamine, ketamine and cannabis with intent to supply and conspiring to supply those drugs and also GBL between December last year and June 21. O'Neill was jailed for eight-and-a-half years.
A man told he was not going to jail persuaded the judge otherwise
Reece Corran, 20, a low level drug dealer was told he would not go to jail after being sentenced for two counts of possession of cannabis with intent to supply that took place in 2021.
Corran, of Wapshare Road, Norris Green, pleaded guilty to eight offences involving possessing methylamphetamine, ketamine and cannabis with intent to supply and conspiring to supply those drugs and also GBL between December last year and June 21. His lawyer Peter White successfully made a case for a sentence to be suspended but Corran shook his head in the dock at the mention of unpaid work and sessions with the probation services.
Judge Gary Woodhall noticed this, saying that Corran had "indicated to the court that it's (a suspended sentence) not going to be workable", and sentenced him to ten months in jail. The judge said the immediate custodial sentence was a result of Corran's "stance and attitude to conditions I could pass", adding: "but you have told me in advance you cannot comply".
Chippy owner agreed to cannabis farm above shop then led police to it
Mahir Berkpinar, 42, reported that he had been assaulted by his business partner, bringing them to the location of a cannabis farm above Mike and Martha’s chip shop in Warrington.
He had been promised £1,000 per month to allow the operation to be run on his premises, but revealed that he never received any payment. Berkpinar, of Ramsey Close in Luton, called the police on December 4 2020, and “led them upstairs” to the flat above the takeaway that he owned.
They found a total of 89 cannabis plants growing across two bedrooms. The "relatively sophisticated setup" was accompanied by lighting rigs and insulation, and had a potential yield of between 2.5kg and 7.5kg. He admitted permitting a premises to be used for the production of cannabis.
He was handed an eight-month imprisonment suspended for 18 months, 120 hours of unpaid work and a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 10 days. Forfeiture and destruction of the drugs and paraphernalia, as well as of an axe seized from the property, was also ordered. Berkpinar was told to pay a victim surcharge.
A man caught with drugs up his bottom told police it was "for the weekend"
A drug dealer was caught with cocaine between his bum cheeks told police it was “for the weekend” after being strip searched.
On Friday (September 2), Liverpool Crown Court heard that, at 8.40pm on June 26, 2021, officers from Merseyside Police received information about a Mercedes being involved in drug supply around Sefton. They then observed what they thought to be a drug deal on Grecian Street, Seaforth.
Michael Conley, 46, was detained and claimed he was going to a female friend's house that night but was taken to a police station and strip searched where they found four bags of white powder, later identified as cocaine, between his bottom cheeks. Conley then told police: "It's for personal use, it's for the weekend".
17 more bags of white powder, also identified as cocaine and estimated to be worth £2,086 were found at his home at Melling Road, Aintree. He pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of a Class A drug with intent to supply and one count of cannabis possession at the first opportunity and was sentenced to Judge Murray sentenced Conley to a further 12 months, to be added to the 30 months sentence he was currently serving.
READ MORE:
Suspects arrested in connection with Elle Edwards murder remain in custody
Addison's disease symptoms as Liverpool coach Jay Spearing's body 'shuts down'
Teen appears in court charged with murdering young woman days before Christmas
