FIVE Bradford criminals who carried out a range of offences, including drug dealing and burglary, have been locked up for a total of 20 years.
Sentencing at Bradford Crown Court yesterday, the Recorder of Bradford Judge Roger Thomas QC, said the majority of the offences involved group activity and spanned a period of time going back to the summer of 2012.
The four men and a woman were involved in offences which included a drugs supply conspiracy and burglary with intent to cause damage.
Tyrone Gill, 25, of Fairbank Green, Bradford, pleaded guilty to the conspiracy; burglary and possession of cannabis; burglary with intent to cause damage; and possessing class A drugs with intent to supply. He was jailed for six years and four months.
Imran Syed, 26, of Barkerend Road, Barkerend, admitted the conspiracy and the burglary with intent, and was jailed for four years.
Marcus Zacardelli, 19, of Southfield Lane, Great Horton, pleaded guilty to the burglary with intent; and burglary and theft at Birkenshaw. He was sentenced to three and a half years youth custody.
Mark Cawley, 26, of Douglas Towers, Little Horton, was jailed for three years after admitting the burglary with intent and five breaches of a restraining order.
Elizabeth Rajas, 23, of Sutton Crescent, Tyersal, Bradford, pleaded guilty to the drugs conspiracy and was sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment.
The court heard the drugs conspiracy dated back to 2012. Gill was arrested in August of that year and found to be in possession of a phone being used for the supply of class A drugs in street deals.
After his arrest the phone number came into the possession of Syed. He was caught red-handed in a car by police and later admitted to a probation officer he had been involved for a few months.
Rajas ferried drugs on behalf of others on up to ten occasions.
Prosecutor Tony Kelbrick said the burglary with damage took place last April at a house in Falsgrave Avenue, Fagley. The occupant was out when the four men - armed with an axe, baseball bats and a metal bar - broke into the property.
Neighbours heard banging and smashing coming from inside and £600 damage was caused. When the men left, Cawley and Syed picked up rocks from the garden and smashed the kitchen window.
Gill was also involved in two crimes in Lancashire. One, with a group of other men, involved breaking into an industrial unit in Burnley and stealing plants from a cannabis farm. The villains fled in a convoy of three vans. Two were stopped by police and more than 150 plants found inside.
The second offence was in Preston when Gill was found to have more than 300 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine hidden in his underpants.
The court heard Cawley breached a restraining order made to protect his former girlfriend on five occasions, beginning soon after it was imposed. The breaches included repeated phone calls to her home and work, among them threats to throw acid over her and attack her brother.
Judge Thomas described what Cawley did as "terrible, persistent and very, very nasty" and he had made her life a living hell.
Zacardelli had joined in a professional Hanoi burglary at a house in Old Lane, Birkenshaw, in which a Ford Fiesta was stolen, along with a 32-inch TV and a laptop computer.
Detective Inspector Ian Bryar, of the Bradford District Quartz Team, said after the case: "Gill and Syed played key roles in this conspiracy to supply thousands of pounds of drugs across Bradford District and beyond, while Rajas acted as their courier.
"I am pleased with the sentences which they have received today, and hope it will send out a warning to those involved in the supply of drugs that they can expect to be sent to prison if convicted.
"Confiscation proceedings will now begin with a view to seeing what assets can be recovered under the Proceeds of Crime Act."
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