24-year-old Sophie Thompson, a young mother from Birmingham, has been sentenced to three years in prison after she was caught flooding the streets of Gloucestershire with heroin and crack cocaine. The young mum was an addict herself, and turned to dealing in order to pay off a £10,000 drug debt that she owed to her drug dealer.
Thompson was arrested with another man who drove her around during her crime spree, but he avoided a serious jail term. The man was reportedly just her driver and not her drug dealer, and he was only giving her rides for a few days, according to court testimony. The dealer has still not been identified by police, but an investigation is underway.
The driver was a 25-year-old man named Blessing Choto, and he denied having any knowledge of the young woman’s illegal business. Choto insisted that he believed she had a legitimate job as a nurse, which prompted laughter from the courtroom, including from Thompson herself.
Choto told the court that he believed he was driving Thompson to and from work. The man was sentenced to a short stint of unpaid labor, but avoided the harsh prison sentence that Thompson received. Thompson reportedly paid Choto £120 for each trip, and he had only been driving her for a few days at the time of the arrest.
The judge sentenced Choto to a three-year community order that includes 200 hours of unpaid work. Choto was also ordered to pay £1,000 for court costs and a victim surcharge of £95.
Prosecutor Charles Row said that when the pair were pulled over by police, Thompson had her jeans undone, but she told the officers on the scene that it was because she “felt bloated and uncomfortable.”
After a search of the vehicle, Thompson was found carrying a large amount of heroin with a street value of £4,480, and cocaine valued at £2,130. Telephone analysis later revealed that Thompson had been traveling between Birmingham and Gloucestershire on a regular basis since November 2020. Police estimate that the young woman brought in over £100,000 worth of heroin and crack cocaine into the county for the two-month period.
When she was arrested, Thompson explained that she needed the money to pay off her own drug debt.
Thompson was also on probation at the time, and was paying off a debt that had existed since before her previous prison term.
“On her arrest, Thompson explained that she needed the money to pay off her own drug debt. In her police interview, she explained that she still owed drug dealers £10,000 debt from a time when she was arrested and subsequently jailed in 2018. She was paying off this debt at £100 a day,” Prosecutor Row said, according to Birmingham Live.
Thompson, of Shenstone Road, Birmingham, pleaded guilty to four charges for being concerned with the intent to supply of class A drugs, crack cocaine, and heroin between November 1, 2020 and December 8, 2020.
Choto, of Turf Pitts Lane, Sutton Coldfield was found guilty after a trial of being concerned with the supply of class A drugs, diamorphine, and crack cocaine between December 6, and December 8, 2020.
