Desborough care home thief played role in county lines drugs misery

A thief who stole thousands from residents at a Desborough care home became involved in a county lines drugs operation months after she was let out of prison.

Chelsea McIntyre abused her position at Beech House in Lower Street to take more than £27,000 from her vulnerable victims five years ago, including £25,000 in life savings from one elderly man.

She splurged the cash on luxury jewellery, TVs, perfume and a sofa and was jailed for two years in December 2017, with a judge telling her she would spend half of her sentence in prison.

But just months after she was released and while still on licence, she added drug crimes to her criminal CV by playing a role in a huge county lines operation which peddled heroin and cocaine between Birmingham and the streets of Northampton.

At the head of the operation - known as the G&M line - were Levi Bernard, her partner and the father of her three young children, and Omarni Bernard-Sewell. They were later jailed for seven years each for conspiracy to supply class A drugs.

Yesterday (Friday) Northampton Crown Court heard McIntyre, 29, allowed her vehicle to be used for six journeys between Birmingham and Northampton, believed to be to drop off drugs and collect cash, between February and April 2019. On three of those occasions she was in the car.

Sentencing, Recorder Graham Huston said: "She knew that it was not a small operation. It was a commercial operation, with some sophistication."

The court heard the G&M line, which was in existence from December 2018 to October 2019, was believed to have sold drugs worth up to almost £100,000.

Bernard and Bernard-Sewell would use vulnerable drug users to do their dirty work on the streets and took advantage of someone to cuckoo an address in Northampton to sell drugs.

But that address played a part in their downfall when an undercover Northamptonshire Police officer bought drugs from a seller there as part of an operation to bring the line down, known as Operation Poetry.

Prosecutor Nadia Silver said ANPR cameras showed McIntyre's car travelling between Birmingham and Northampton, with her phone sometimes co-locating with Bernard's on the journey, often staying in Northampton for just a short period before returning.

There was no suggestion that McIntyre sold or distributed drugs, or controlled street dealers, with her "trusted" role in the operation providing transport for Bernard.

On October 14 last year an iPhone was seized from the kitchen of McIntyre's home in Birmingham which found a number of messages which proved she was aware of the operation.

Whatsapp conversations between her and someone called Nadia included references to nittys, drugs users who commit crime to fund their habits, and trapping, a place where drugs are stashed.

In one sent message, referencing messaging Bernard's phone to buy drugs, she said: "No not his personal you mad? If it was going off like that, his personal, there would be a lot of problems lol."

Replying to one message suggesting "pigs" were coming to search a house, McIntyre said: "If anything there move it just in case."

Ms Silver said: "It's clear that McIntyre was aware that her partner was involved in some sort of illegal activities."

McIntyre, who previously lived in Gladstone Street in Desborough, said she only became aware the purpose of the journeys between Birmingham and Northampton was related to drugs on the second of the six trips.

When her address was searched a black burner phone was also found in a drawer in her bedroom, hidden in clothes. It rang three times while her home was being searched.

Call data from the handset showed it was being used to operate the G&M line, but it was not the only phone to do so.

Designer clothes and a rock of cocaine were also seized from the house, which were later attributed to Bernard.

McIntyre, who the court heard hopes to start a nails and beauty business, was arrested but denied having any involvement in the sale of drugs, claiming she didn't know G&M existed.

She was later charged with conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine and pleaded not guilty, before admitting the lesser offence of being concerned in the supply of class A drugs in June this year, three months after it was offered to her. This, she said, was because she was worried that she would be jailed and leave her children without parents in the Covid lockdown.

Mitigating, Mahan Manu said McIntyre only went on the trips to Northampton and back to spend time with her partner and that Bernard had exploited her vulnerability.

He said: "This is a lady who was besotted with Mr Bernard but he would not return her emotions.

"[She wanted] just to spend some time with him...to get a couple of hours."

He added that McIntyre feared her children being uprooted and moved from their schools if both parents were in prison.

Sentencing, Recorder Huston said McIntyre knew why she was taking Bernard to Northampton and knew drug users were being exploited.

But he decided to suspend her two-year prison sentence for a period of two years, on the condition that she completes 150 hours of unpaid work and takes part in rehabilitation activities.

He warned her: "This is an opportunity for you to break away.

"You will not be able to use your children as a get out of jail card again. Do not be under any illusions about that."

McIntyre will face a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing in April.

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