Drug dealer jailed after boasting in a text that Keighley would become an 'M-cat goldmine'

Leeds Crown Court heard police inquiries led back to John Sutcliffe after his co-accused, Dean Randle, was arrested and 111 grammes of M-cat was found in grip seal bags in a cash box in that man’s garden.

His mobile phone was seized and it was clear from the messages on it that he and Sutcliffe were partners running a drug supply operation in both Bingley and Keighley.

Sutcliffe’s home was searched in April last year and further drugs were recovered along with his phone containing incriminating messages relating to ketamine, steroids and cannabis as well as M-cat, said Craig Hassall prosecuting.

One of the messages referred to supplying a kilo for £2,000 and another to kidnapping and torturing a man who had not paid a drug debt.

The court heard on June 8 this year Sutcliffe was also involved in a bizarre assault at a party in Riddlesden when he and another man, Ashley Greig, having taken drink and drugs, dared each other to cause injury to the other.

Mr Hassall said in that drunken bravado Sutcliffe presented his arm to Greig who cut it with a kitchen knife and Sutcliffe then did the same in turn to Greig to the horror of onlookers.

The girl whose party it was asked them both to leave and the pair then attended Airedale General Hospital where their wounds were stitched, Sutcliffe having the deepest.

Sutcliffe, 25, of Beck Road, Bingley was jailed for a total of two years and four months after he admitted conspiracy to supply class B and C drugs and assault causing actual bodily harm on Greig.

Randle was jailed last week for a total of three years and 11 months after he admitted the same two conspiracy charges and another involving conspiracy to import cathinone type drugs.

Jailing Sutcliffe Judge James Spencer QC said while the extent of their supply was unclear, he and Randle had clearly decided to exploit the market for synthetic drugs in the Keighley area.

He said it also appeared from some of the alarming messages on the phones “you were going to use your imposing presence to enforce your debts.”

Greig, 25, of Compeigne Avenue, Keighley, who admitted assault causing actual bodily harm to Sutcliffe and theft and criminal damage at a house in Bell Lane, Keighley, was separately yesterday jailed for ten months.

Mr Hassall said in addition to the assault at the party Greig had entered an unoccupied house in Bell Lane, Keighley and caused substantial damage by removing the radiators and copper piping.

Jailing Greig, Judge Spencer said he and Sutcliffe had acted in “an alarming way” at the party in front of other people. “That is the kind of violence that is not allowed and will not be tolerated.”