A drug dealer exploited two highly vulnerable women, used violence on them and took over their homes to sell drugs or store weapons. Lucky Pemberton, a convicted thug and robber, was jailed for six years and five months for possessing drugs with intent to supply, which a judge described as "extensive dealing of Class A".
Concurrent sentences were handed down to Pemberton for two offences of assault, causing bodily harm, after he left one woman, whose first name is "Donna", with a graze to her head, and the second, "Helen", with swelling and bruising to her thigh after using a machete to injure her. What happened is more commonly known as "Cuckooing" - a form of crime, termed by the police, in which the home of a vulnerable person is taken over by a criminal in order to use it to deal, store or take drugs, facilitate sex work, as a place for them to live, or to financially abuse the tenant.
Nottingham Crown Court heard Donna, a former heroin and crack cocaine addict, had weaned herself off drugs but returned to using "bits and bobs" of Class A in the weeks before she met Pemberton. At first she had sympathy for him - he had nowhere to stay and he stayed at her Strelley home - and they became friends.
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But things changed, according to her, when he arrived at her house daily, and offered her drugs in exchange for doing things for him. Pemberton became aggressive and intimidating, often belittling her in front of others and was domineering. She prepared drugs on his behalf and went to the front door to give drugs to buyers.
Her bank account was used to deposit money from drug sales, with Pemberton escorting her to withdraw the cash. She was frightened and scared of Pemberton, of no fixed address, who was described as "someone you don't mess with".
Donna feared if she she did stand up to him and did not do what he he said, there would be reprisals. But Pemberton claimed they were friends and positively engaged in selling clothes on Facebook.
And he claimed she was the one who introduced him to drugs and she had "sucked" him into the situation, denying her exploited her in any way. But her 14-year-old son provided a different picture of a man who used to come to the house to the point he was treating it as home, if not, treating it as his home. The teenager said he heard Pemberton being aggressive and arrogant towards his mother.
Donna's father said his daughter was unable to get rid of the defendant, who came round every day and went upstairs. On one occasion, he saw Pemberton "ferociously" beat someone at the door.
Helen, an alcoholic, who lived near Donna, was drinking one-and-a-half bottles of cidar a day and using crack cocaine and cannabis. She told the court she met Pemberton though a drug supplier and then he left weapons in her home and went there with friends.
He denied, during a hearing to iron out disputes in the evidence on Monday (December 19), that he was using her home for the storage of anything at all. But Recorder Stuart Sparwson said he was sure the defendant exploited both vulnerable women
The judge was satisfied he used Helen's home to store weapons. "I am sure he exploited both women and these houses. I am sure he used one home (Donna's) for the the purpose of his drugs operation and he took advantage of her and she is a vulnerable individual," added Recorder Sprawson.
Pemberton, 28, who pleaded guilty to the charges, had stored weapons at either or both locations, and had used a machete to injure Helen, said the judge.
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