A PROLIFIC criminal who enticed an addict to sell heroine and cocaine on the streets of Crewe has been jailed for eight years.
Granville Harvey had only just been released from prison when he enticed a former addict into dealing wraps of Class A drugs, allegedly threatening and slashing him across the face when he tried to quit.
The 33-year-old, who has a prolific record for drug dealing, fraud and violence, was found guilty following a three-day trial of two counts of supplying class A drugs and one count of possessing cocaine and heroine with intent to supply.
He was found not guilty of blackmailing Ian Burton, who acted as a street dealer for Harvey, selling to customers in Crewe from January to April this year.
Harvey, formerly of Brentwood Road, Blacon, gained £75,180 from criminal activity over the past two years – more than £65,000 was drained from an elderly Chester man’s bank account after befriending him in a pub.
He was living in a green caravan in Nantwich surrounded with chicken wire when he was arrested by police for the offences earlier this year.
Harvey – whose whole family was forced to move from Chester after an ASBO imposed in 2008 banned them from entering Blacon and Handbridge – frightened the addict so much he handed himself in to the police to escape his threats.
During the trial at Chester Crown Court the jury heard how, in January this year, Harvey approached his parent’s neighbour – recovering crack cocaine addict Ian Burton – and asked him to sell Class A drugs on the streets.
For almost three months Mr Burton sold wraps of cocaine and heroine for Harvey, riding around Crewe’s streets on his bike and meeting customers, selling each wrap for £10 and sometimes taking back £600-£700 to Harvey in a day.
On a typical day Mr Burton would collect the drugs from Harvey’s parents’ house in Crewe or his caravan in Nantwich, before selling 20-30 wraps of Class A drugs.
And on one occasion Mr Burton accompanied Harvey on a drugs run to Ellesmere Port, where he bought thousands of pounds of cocaine and heroine from a supplier on the street.
Speaking from behind a screen in the trial, Mr Burton described how he had been ‘robbed’ of the drugs on several occasions, but when he told Harvey he was threatened, kicked in the face and made to continue to work for free to ‘pay off his debts’.
“He did not believe me,” said Mr Burton, who had initially refused to work for Harvey but gave in after repeated requests.
“He was at the top of the stairs and he grabbed some scissors and started slicing my face with them. He said I had to sell them ‘cos I owed him money, I was worried he would attack me.”
Prosecuting, Myles Wilson told the court how Mr Burton was so terrified of Harvey that on April 16 this year he walked into a police station and handed himself in.
Just days later, on April 23, police raided Harvey’s caravan and caught him among 18 wraps of cocaine, clear bags, a chopping board and other drug paraphernalia.
Police also discovered a ‘dealers list’, three mobile phones and hundreds of pounds in cash.
Defending Harvey, Julian Linskill said his client had suffered from cancer and was in remission, and the dealing had taken place on a small scale and over a short period of time.
Sentencing Harvey to eight years behind bars, Judge Elgan Edwards said: “The sad fact is that you are a talented painter and it is a shame you do not use it to better effect.
“I do urge you not to get involved in drugs again.”
