4:20pm Sunday 6th December 2009
A CANCER-stricken pensioner who stashed drugs worth £700,000 in his home could die in prison after being jailed for five years, a court heard.
William Thompson, aged 67, was part of an international drugs cartel and stored huge amounts of liquid ecstasy, amphetamines and cannabis at his home in Hindley Road, Westhoughton.
Thompson, who is suffering from throat cancer and speaks through a voice box, may now have to live out his last days behind bars. His sentence was delayed for 20 months because of his illness.
Neil Fryman, defending, said: “Here we have a man who is 67 and in very poor health — grave health. He has very aggressive cancer.
“It would be too dramatic to say that Your Honour would be giving him a death sentence, but there is a substantial prospect that he won’t be coming out of prison.”
Despite his condition, Judge Steven Everett said his offences were so serious that only a custodial sentence was appropriate.
He added: “It gives me no great pleasure but I feel I would not be doing my public duty if I had passed any other sentence.”
David Clarke, prosecuting, told Bolton Crown Court that Thompson was arrested when police raided his home on February 22, 2008.
Police found nine cardboard boxes stacked up in the living room containing 15,718 vials of a green liquid, which turned out to be a rare form of liquid ecstasy mixed with amphetamine.
The court heard that the purity of the vials was low and that they equated to just over 4,000 ecstasy tablets.
Inside a chest freezer in the garage there were 34 sealed bags of amphetamine, of varying purity, weighing a total of 62kg.
In the attic, police found three boxes of vials containing unadulterated ecstasy and four bags of cannabis.
In two upstairs bedrooms, they found cannabis bush in chests of drawers and money transfer receipts relating to transactions in Holland, the Ukraine and the West Indies.
In a room under the stairs officers found four more bags of cannabis bush and two boxes which had arrived from Arnhem, Holland, and a plastic bag containing a sheet of labels.
Mr Clarke said the street value of the drugs was between £612,733 and £778,690.
Thompson, who pleaded guilty to possessing class A, B and C drugs with intent to supply, told police he met up with a criminal associate 18 months ago.
He said he was paid £18,000 for his part in the drug-dealing operation.
His role was described in court as that of a “warehouse man” who stashed the drugs.
He also helped label the ecstasy vials and made European money transfers worth £22,140 from August 2006 until his arrest last year.
Judge Everett said that Thompson was not an importer but that he was close to the top of the operation which did bring the drugs into the country.
He added: “You used your house, in part, as a business centre for the ongoing sale of these dangerous drugs.”
Thompson blew a kiss to his relatives as he was led from the dock.
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