Hanzel Scott: Drug dealing 'bully' leading extravagant life of millionaire raped girls while on bail

Drugs empire

The ill-gotten gains from Hanzel Scott’s ‘extraordinary’ and ‘sophisticated’ criminal enterprise, through which he flooded the streets of South Yorkshire with kilograms of cocaine, led to him living the lifestyle of a millionaire, Sheffield Crown Court heard. 

A conservative estimate of the amount Scott, aged 42, generated through the sale of Class A drugs between January 2018 and June 2020 is believed to have been in excess of £292,000.

Judge Graham Reeds told a hearing held on November 6, 2024 that police believe the true amount Scott raked in is likely to be ‘much more’. 

Scott splashed the cash on extravagant items including two Land Rover vehicles worth £150,000, cosmetic surgeries - including veneers worth £10,000 -  luxury clothes and accessories from designers including Louis Vuitton, diamond jewellery and flashy watches. 

“Your business of drug supply was extraordinary. When you were arrested, your house had the trappings of a person living the lifestyle of a millionaire,” Judge Reeds told Scott. 

Judge Reeds said while it was ‘impossible to say exactly how much cocaine’ was supplied during the course of the conspiracy, ‘millions of pounds must have changed hands during the two-and-a-half years the business was in operation’.

Quantities of heroin were also moved through Scott’s empire, the court heard. 

“You ran it like a business. You were like the leader, and you brought in other people…to do jobs that were necessary,” Judge Reeds told Scott. 

Information from Scott’s encrypted messaging services and phones, the use of which he incorrectly believed would protect him from being detected by police, revealed that he bought 16 kilograms of cocaine over the space of just six weeks. 

In addition, cash payments of nearly £684,000 were also made during the operation period of Scott’s enterprise, the court heard. 

Scott owned, and ran, a ‘small’ furniture business at the same time as the drugs enterprise, which he was forced to close during the Covid lockdown, said prosecutor Chloe Hudson. 

He used a number of ‘dealers’ and ‘couriers’ to distribute the drugs, once they had been broken down to ‘street-level quantities,’ the court heard.

Scott’s co-accused, James Westrop and Jordan Massarella, were among the people recruited to the illicit business.

Judge Reeds said he was sure that while the pair were ‘moving significant quantities of drugs,’ each of them was ‘persuaded or cajoled’ by Scott into becoming involved. 

In the case of Westrop, 25, the court heard how he initially became involved with the drug empire in February as a customer. 

“By April you started as a courier, by May you were a manager of logistics - as it has been described - until the enterprise was brought to an end by police,” said Judge Reeds. 

Prior to being recruited by Scott, 30-year-old Massarella worked for him through his furniture business. 

When the Covid lockdown forced the closure of the furniture business, Scott persuaded him to sell drugs instead ‘rather than pay him for furlough,’ Judge Reeds told the court. 

Ms Hudson said the ‘highly successful’ enterprise was brought to an end when Scott was arrested by police on June 8, 2020. 

String of sex offences committed by Scott while on bail

Following his arrest, Scott was subsequently released on bail, and it was after Scott was released back into the community that he attacked, degraded and raped, two teenage girls, in separate, shocking incidents.

Neither of the girls can be named for legal reasons. 

Scott was in his 40s at the time of both attacks, the court heard.

Scott - who winked and gave a thumbs up as his sentence was being passed down - prolonged, exacerbated and compounded the girls’ ordeals by denying the offences, and forcing them to give evidence during a trial at the same court, following which jurors convicted him of a total of seven sex offences, including five counts of rape. 

The remorseless sex offender even had the audacity to smirk and shake his head while the girls’ statements were being read to the court during today’s sentencing hearing. 

Ms Hudson told the court that Scott’s abuse of one of the girls, Complainant A, took place while he was on holiday in Mexico. 

Scott subjected the girl to multiple, and separate, incidents of rape, as well as one offence of assault by penetration and another of attempted assault by penetration, during a short period of time, the court heard. 

Complainant A reported Scott to the police after he returned to England, and the court heard how he continued to try and manipulate her, even while in prison on remand. 

Through her statement to the court, Complainant A said she had gone from being a ‘confident young woman’ with her future ahead of her to someone who, at the age of 17 or 18, still needs her mum to come with her due to the sense of fear and anxiety Scott has instilled in her. 

Complainant B was attacked by Scott after he promised to drive her home, but instead drove her to his house, where he raped her, the court heard. 

“Later the defendant came back and spoke to her and said he would kill her if she told anyone what happened,” Ms Hudson said, adding: “She believed he would carry out the threats, given what she had been told about his lifestyle.” 

A video was played to the court of Complainant B reading her statement, in which she said: “He violated me and changed my life forever.”

“The brutal actions of Hanzel Scott have traumatised me…when I see others being normal, it’s like looking at a room I can’t get into.” 

Jurors convicted Scott of one count of rape in relation to Complainant B. 

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Guilty pleas

He was also brought before the court to be sentenced for headbutting a police officer who arrested him after he was seen with a knife at Doncaster’s Tiki Bar.

In relation to the drugs enterprise, Scott pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to supply a controlled drug of Class A, namely cocaine and heroin, and one count of transferring criminal property at an earlier hearing. He also admitted one count of assaulting an emergency worker in connection with the Tiki Bar incident. 

Westrop and Massarella also pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to supply a controlled drug of Class A, namely cocaine and heroin, along with one count of concealing/ disguising /converting /transferring /removing criminal property at an earlier hearing. 

Defendants’ mitigation and sentences

Defending Scott, Julia Smart asked Judge Reeds to be mindful of the principle of totality, and not to double count when sentencing him for the three separate lots of offences. 

“He’s a 42-year-old man. It’s always difficult passing sentences that are so long,” Ms Smart said, and suggested that rehabilitation is made more difficult for defendants who ‘lose heart’ due to the length of their sentences. 

Referring to the mitigation in Westrop’s case, Judge Reeds said it was clear that he is a very different person at 25-years-old to the one he was at 20 when he committed the offences, and said the eight references submitted on his behalf shows there is a ‘different side’ to him. 

Judge Reeds also said the fact Massarella, of Bell Hagg Road, Sheffield, had a clean criminal record prior to these offences, and has kept out of trouble since 2021, was to his credit. 

In both cases, Judge Reeds said he did not underestimate the ‘anxiety’ caused by the four-year delay in the case reaching court.

Jailing Scott for 24 years, Judge Reeds told him: “During the trial, I formed a clear view of you, as a selfish bully who takes what he wants, by force if necessary.”

Scott, of Sovereign Court, Doncaster, was also told he must remain on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely. 

Westrop, of Bracken Road, Doncaster, was jailed for 49 months, while Massarella received a 32-month sentence.