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Town 'a better place after dealers jailed'
THREE South Yorkshire drug dealers have been jailed for their part in a heroin supply network - with addicts trying to quit now benefiting after they were swept from the streets.
Gareth Featherstone, aged 30, Claire Gough, 31, and Adrian Bellis, 29 are the latest dealers to be sentenced as part of South Yorkshire Police’s Operation Mantis.
Judge Patrick Robertshaw sentenced Featherstone to four and half years, his girlfriend Gough to three and a half years, and Bellis to two years and nine months for supplying.
He said the trio had made a “significant contribution” to drug-related crime in Barnsley”.
Judge Robertshaw said: “Your activities taken together have been quite an unnecessary temptation to addicts in Barnsley.”
He said the dedicated drugs court in Barnsley had received feedback from addicts and former addicts in the town that they had “personally experienced huge benefits” from drug-dealing crackdown Mantis.
The Judge said: “Temptations that otherwise would have been available to them are no longer, and that’s a real measure of the success of the police operation.”
The crackdown was launched in April in response to concerns from residents, shoppers and businesses about drug dealing taking place around Peel Square in the town centre.
Last month 10 defendants were jailed for more than 30 years between them for their roles in the supply network, receiving sentences ranging between seven years and 11 months.
Sheffield Crown Court heard that Featherstone and Gough, who lived together on Wombwell Road, Platts Common, along with Bellis, of Holden Court, town centre, worked together in a “tightly knit” group to supply heroin between April and July this year.
David Wain, prosecuting, said they had sold the drug to undercover police officers on 15 occasions and had also been seen supplying it to 13 others.
Judge Robertshaw added: “You were acting together as a tightly knit group dealing in the highly dangerous, highly addictive, drug heroin. You, Featherstone, as the organiser of the group, and you Gough playing a slightly subordinate role but an important one in dealing and scoring the drug."
Paul O'Shea, defending, said Bellis used heroin to "blot out reality" following a series of deaths in his family.
"He became involved in the activities of other people, and was paid in kind by taking heroin," Mr O'Shea said.
Lee Lax, 35, of Pollitt Street, town centre, was also sentenced for his role in the scheme after being caught out during the same operation.
He was jailed for four and a half years for supplying heroin last Friday.
Chief Inspector Scott Green said the town was a "better place" as a result of Operation Mantis.
He said: "The impact on Barnsley town centre is already evident.
"The feedback from members of the public and businesses alike has been very positive and the town itself is a better place today because of this.
"Barnsley has always been known as a thriving market town and is enjoyed by people from across the borough and further a field and we will continue to work with the community to ensure that Barnsley remains as it is known - a safe place to live work and visit."
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Weather for Sheffield
Saturday 26 May 2012
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Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
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