Faces and stories of 258 Lancashire criminals locked up in 2020

The courts have had a very busy year despite the coronavirus pandemic

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Murders, child molesters, terrorists and international drug smugglers were among the criminals jailed across Lancashire in 2020.

Shocking cases have come before the courts over the past 12 months with some leading to sentences of life imprisonment being handed down.

In many cases, their victims showed tremendous courage in facing their tormentors in court or fighting back against the thugs who targeted them.

Lancashire officers have spent months and in some cases years working tirelessly to bring these callous criminals to justice for their horrific crimes.

LancsLive has brought you coverage of the most high-profile trials and then the jail terms and mugshots of those found guilty of the heinous crimes.

These are the faces of just some of the criminals who have been sent to prison from January to December:

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A man who had sex with a number of chickens and his own Great Dane dog was jailed for 30 months.

Shane Waters, 40, has also been banned from owning animals for life after a court heard of his sickening sexual abuse of animals in September 2020.

Burnley Crown Court heard Waters, a supermarket stock checker, has previous convictions for abusing horses in the 1997 and 2016.

Judge Sara Dodd said the case was “as unusual as it is disturbing” as she handed down his sentence.

On September 19 2020, the farmer at Lower Holker Farm, Accrington, opened the chicken shed to discover a number of dead and injured birds.

Fearing “something sexual” had happened to them, he checked CCTV and called in the RSPCA.

Footage showed Waters prowling around the farm before leaving the barn at 11.40pm.

He was arrested on September 23 and told officers: “I need help. I know what I have done. I just get these urges.”

During his interview, Waters told police he had been on the farm on about nine previous occasions “but usually only had sex with one chicken”.

Barbara Webster, prosecuting, said: “He did not like performing the act and said sorry to the chickens after.”

The court heard a total of 15 chickens died as a result of Waters’ abuse.

He also admitted having intercourse with his pet dog over a four month period, but said the dog "did not like it and growled and bit him".

Anna Chestnut, defending, said Waters hoped to rebuild his life upon his release from prison.

She said: “This is not the person he wants to be. He is thoroughly disgusted by his behaviour.”

Judge Dodd said: “As I understand it, at least 15 chickens died as a result of your sordid sexual activity.

“Those who kept the chickens are understandably horrified and appalled by what you have done.

“I have no doubt anyone hearing the details of this case will be disgusted.

“Your conduct is distressing and truly worrying, particularly in light of your previous convictions.”

The judge made an indefinite criminal behaviour order banning waters from keeping animals, and made him subject to notification for life.

A mum-of-two was jailed for 20 months after stealing £77,000 from her gran to spend on takeaways and internet shopping.

Katey Millen, 31, emptied her nana’s bank account over six years to make her own life more comfortable, a court heard.

The 80-year-old victim knew her granddaughter was stealing from her and begged her to stop.

But Millen was only reported when family members discovered there was no money left to buy her nana a much-needed stairlift.

Millen, of Padiham, pleaded guilty to theft and appeared at Preston Crown Court to be sentenced.

Judge Graham Knowles QC told her: “You bled your grandmother dry.”

The court heard Millen lived next door to her grandmother for four years from 2013 to 2017.

During that time she admitted she had used Mrs Millen’s bank card for shopping “by accident” and had paid the money back, reassuring her grandmother it would not happen again.

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But over the following six years, Mrs Millen noticed money was disappearing from her bank - and knew her granddaughter was to blame.

On eight or nine occasions she went to the bank and asked to have her cards cancelled in an attempt to protect her money.

But unknown to Mrs Millen, the defendant had set up internet banking and PayPal accounts, which she used to buy things for herself and her family.

In 2019, Mrs Millen’s daughter looked at her bank account to see if her mum could afford a stairlift as her health was deteriorating. She was shocked to discover that the account was overdrawn.

As she spoke to her mother, Mrs Millen began shaking and trembling, telling her daughter there was a drawer full of letters from the bank which she was frightened to open.

The police were called and Millen immediately confessed, telling officers she had a stressful life taking care of her partner and two children who have complex needs.

She said she used the money to buy takeaways on nights she could not face cooking.

Judge Knowles QC, sentencing, said: “She (Mrs Millen) dealt with you when you had money troubles and were in debt. You had a number of different debts and your grandmother wanted to help you.

“She paid off your debts and you repid her in this way.

“By 2017 she had cottoned on to what you were doing. She didn’t report you. She didn't want you to be in trouble with the police. She didn’t tell her daughter about what you were doing.

“But she did beg you to stop and you didn’t.

“You treated her with complete contempt. You lied to her and said you had stopped, said you had repaid.

“Sometimes you paid something back only to take it away again.”

The judge accepted that jailing Millen would have an impact on her children, but said: “That is the difficult balancing act I have to perform because of what you did.

“In my judgement this is not a case where I can justify keeping you out of prison.”

A convicted sex offender from East Lancashire was jailed for downloading indecent images of children and animals.

David Ashley, 58, of Brentwood Road, Nelson, admitted to two counts of breaching his Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO), four counts of making indecent images of children, and a further two counts of being in possession of extreme pornographic images of animals.

In October officers from Lancashire Constabulary’s Management of Sexual Offenders and Violent Offenders (MOSOVO) team seized several of Ashley’s devices during a regular visit to his home as a registered sex offender.

After examination, his devices were found to contain applications designed to hide his internet activity. They also contained breaches of his SHPO and category A, B and C, extreme and prohibited images.

The investigation revealed that the offences were committed between September 2017 and February 2019.

He was sentenced this week at Preston Crown Court to two years in prison; two years for breaching his SHPO, 10 months for making indecent images of children and eight months for possession of extreme images. The sentences will run concurrently.

He was also ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for 10 years and given an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

Investigating officer Jessica Hind of MOSOVO said: “I hope cases such as this one sends out a clear message to offenders that the internet is not an anonymous space for accessing indecent images.''

“We continue to pro-actively target offenders who seek to exploit the Internet for their own perverse purposes. Online criminal activity leaves a digital footprint and we will find it."

A 17-year-old boy was sentenced to life for the “entirely random” brutal murder of a teaching assistant as she strolled through woods in broad daylight.

Rocky Marciano Price lay in wait for a passing woman and struck when Lindsay Birbeck, 47, crossed his path in Accrington.

Moments earlier he had stalked another lone female walker who was so concerned about being followed she looked for something heavy to pick up and defend herself with before hurrying to safety.

Sentencing Price at Preston Crown Court to a minimum term of 16 years, Mrs Justice Yip said: “There is no evidence of any sexual assault or other apparent motive. Why the defendant chose to kill Lindsay, only he knows.

“The evidence of the other woman demonstrates, beyond doubt, that Lindsay was not targeted for any reason, other than she was a lone woman. If it had not been her, it could have been someone else.

“This was the entirely random killing of a stranger.”

Keep-fit enthusiast Mrs Birbeck went for a quick walk in woods known as the Coppice before planning to cook tea at her home in Burnley Road for daughter, Sarah, 17, and Sarah’s boyfriend.

The alarm was raised when she did not return, which prompted a massive search by police and members of the community.

Five days after Mrs Birbeck’s disappearance on August 12 2019 the defendant brazenly moved her body in a wheelie bin from the Coppice and along Burnley Road to the town’s cemetery, where he buried her.

Her naked body, wrapped in plastic bags, remained concealed in a wooded area at the back of the cemetery until it was discovered by a dog walker on August 24.

A post-mortem examination revealed she died from neck injuries with “severe compressive force”, apparently used either by stamping or kicking or kneeling on the front of her neck.

Such was the decomposition of Mrs Birbeck’s body that no evidence of a sexual assault could be found.

Price, of Whinney Hill Road, Accrington, came forward when police released a CCTV appeal asking for the public’s help in identifying the young man pulling the wheelie bin.

He claimed he was not involved in her death and that a mystery man had approached him in the area and offered a cash reward to dispose of a body.

A jury rejected Price’s account and unanimously found him guilty, exactly one year after Birbeck disappeared.

The judge said the defendant’s autism and learning difficulties did not excuse or explain his behaviour.

She said: “His actions after the killing clearly suggest he had the capacity to plan and reason.”

Price, who followed proceedings on a video-link from Wetherby Young Offender Institution, must serve the minimum period set before he can be considered for release by the Parole Board.

In her victim personal statement read to the court, Sarah Birbeck said her mother was a higher-level teaching assistant and “the irony is she would have taught boys like the defendant and would have tried her best to help him”.

She added: “The fact that he has made us come to court and listen to every graphic detail of my mum’s murder when he could have saved us this pain by pleading guilty is unforgivable.”

Outside court, Price’s father, Creddy, 47, argued there was no DNA evidence to link his son to the actual killing.

He said: “Our son is innocent, he has not got the mental capacity to hurt anyone. We are not going to stop fighting, if it takes us all our lives, to find this other man.”

A father and son were give life sentences and ordered to served a minimum total of 31 years behind bars for murdering Barry Tyrie.

The great-grandfather-of-12 was killed in 'an incredibly shocking and senseless attack' by John Taylor and his son Daniel Taylor outside The Trades Club on Regent Street in Haslingden.

The 69-year-old intervened when John Taylor 'got in the face' of his ex-partner Lizzie Bodycomb during an argument and tried to protect her.

A sentencing hearing at Preston Crown Court heard how Daniel Taylor punched Mr Tyrie 'like a cage fighter' to the head before John Taylor repeatedly kicked him.

Prosecutors said it was a 'brief but brutal joint attack' and that Mr Tyrie was 'dead by the time he got to hospital' one hour later.

They said Mr Tyrie's injures were 'typical of repeated blows from punches, kicks or stamps' and that much of the attack happened with Mr Tyrie unconscious on the floor and in 'no position to defend himself'.

He given CPR by people at the scene and then taken to Royal Blackburn Hospital but did not regain consciousness.

Mr Tyrie died on the same night his great-grandson was born.

The defendants had been drinking in several bars during the evening before they went to the Regent Street club, where John Taylor was seen arguing aggressively outside with Lizzie Bodycomb.

Others intervened and the defendants left but a short time later the pair returned to the club where the argument continued on the street outside and Mr Tyrie.

Judge Mark Brown said Mr Tyrie was a 'popular character' and 'never stood a chance'.

He sentenced both defendants to life in prison. John Taylor will serve a minimum of 16 years behind bars and Daniel Taylor will serve a minimum of 15 years before they can be considered for release.

A 'sexual predator' who raped and sexually abused a young girl nearly a decade ago was jailed for 19 years.

Peter Coleman was arrested in June 2018 after the victim reported the offences, committed between 2011 and 2012, to her family.

A police investigation found the victim had been targeted by Coleman between the ages of seven and eight.

He committed a number of rapes and incited the girl to engage in sexual activity, detectives said.

Coleman, 46, of Beach Road, was charged with the offences but pleaded not guilty at Preston Crown Court.

He was found guilty after a trial and sentenced to 19 years in prison.

He must also sign the sex offenders register.

Two men who rammed and shot at a man in his car in Accrington have been jailed.

Hughie Locke, 27, and Kieran Bolton, 22, were armed with an imitation firearm when they followed Adam Kidger and fired shots towards his head and upper body on May 3 this year.

Mr Kidger was so fearful he drove away with his arm covering his face to protect himself.

Judge Graham Knowles QC, sentencing, said: “The fear and terror that has been described is obvious.”

Preston Crown Court heard Mr Kidger was in a relationship with the mother of Locke’s children and had contacted him about upsetting his partner.

During the row, Locke threatened to get a gun and smash his face in, saying, “I want to go to prison.”

On May 3, Locke took his children to be looked after and called upon Bolton to drive his Mercedes to carry out the attack.

CCTV showed Mr Kidger driving through Ormerod Street, a narrow residential street with double parking, followed by the Mercedes.

When Mr Kidger came to a stop, Locke jumped from his vehicle and smashed at the passenger side windows of Mr Kidger’s car with the gun, taking shots towards the terrified driver.

Mr Kidger reversed into the Mercedes in a bid to escape but Locke continued the attack before getting back into the passenger seat of the Mercedes.

Witnesses reported the incident to police but Mr Kidger did not give a statement.

Bolton, of Glenluce Crescent, Blackburn, drove away but by the time the car was seen again, at the Ewood Park Caravan Site, the two men had swapped places and Locke was in the drivers seat.

Both men pleaded guilty to possession of an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.

Judge Knowles said: “Imitation firearms are often very hard to distinguish from the real thing. The victim is usually as much frightened by an imitation firearm as if a genuine firearm was used.”

He added: “The gun was aimed at very close quarters to either his head or upper body.”

The court heard neither of the two men have any record for violence and both have missed spending time with their children while they have been on remand.

But Judge Knowles said: “This was a premeditated offence committed by both in Locke’s car, Locke having got Bolton to drive him for this purpose.”

He jailed Locke, of Dyson Street, Blackburn, for two years and nine months and Bolton, who also pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified and driving without insurance, to two years and 11 months.

A man was found guilty of murdering Accrington man Mark Fisher.

Joseph Hindle, 45, admitted stabbing Mr Hindle in what he claimed was a robbery to steal Mr Fisher’s cannabis, but denied murder.

But after five hours of deliberation the jury at Preston Crown Court returned a unanimous guilty verdict to the charge.

Members of Mr Fisher’s family sobbed in the public gallery as the foreman of the jury delivered the verdict.

Hindle, of Woodside Road, Huncoat, will be sentenced in the New year. Louise Henwood, 34, also of Woodside Road, will also be sentenced on the same date after pleading guilty to manslaughter before the trial took place.

During the six day trial the jury heard how Henwood had been in a volatile relationship with Mr Fisher 10 years ago and had badmouthed him to her partner Hindle before the killing on January 19.

The pair plotted the robbery before Hindle went to Mr Fisher’s house in Edlestone Street at around lunchtime on January 19 to carry it out.

He attacked Mr Fisher in the kitchen, stabbing him repeatedly to his face, chest and arms with such severity the knife penetrated his internal organs.

Police and paramedics attended the scene but Mr Fisher was pronounced dead at 1.34pm. Hindle had fled the scene.

During the trial he claimed the injuries to Mr Fisher were sustained accidentally as he tried to move him during the robbery.

But the jury dismissed his claims and found him guilty of murder.

A man who subjected a woman to 14 years of physical and sexual abuse has been convicted.

Umar Hamid was found guilty of 11 offences, including rape, assault and firearms offences, following a trial at Preston Crown Court.

Lancashire Police said the abuse against the victim took place between 2006 and 2013 but resurfaced in the spring of 2020 when she reported him to the police.

Hamid, 29, previously Hazel Avenue, Darwen, was arrested in May this year.

The offences were committed at addresses in Burnley and Blackburn.

A prisoner who killed a fellow inmate with a single blow has been jailed for three and a half years.

Ricky Hamill, 39, died after being punched in the chest by Joshua Kettle, at HMP Lancaster Farms on June 23 2019.

Kettle, who was serving a sentence for carjacking, swung the punch as Mr Hamill stood at the pool table with his back to his attacker.

Judge Robert Altham, sentencing, said: “At the time he was struck, Mr Hamill presented a threat to absolutely no-one.”

Preston Crown Court heard before the attack, Mr Hamill had gone into isolation for his own protection after feeling he was not safe but had recently returned to the general wing.

In the week before he was killed, the court heard he had accumulated a drug debt and allegedly made comments to Kettle in the shower area.

A post-mortem examination carried out by Home Office Pathologist Dr Alison Armer revealed Mr Hamill had two underlying aneurisms and despite being given immediate first aid, Mr Hamill died in the early hours of June 28.

It revealed the blow was “of moderate force” and did not cause any bruising to Mr Hamill, who collapsed as Kettle walked away.

Francis McEntee, prosecuting, said: “Clearly this was premeditated. It was an act to make a stand, an act which clearly was intended to cause some harm.”

In a victim impact statement, Mr Hamill’s mum said her son was the oldest of her eight children and was “no angel, but a good person.

Mrs Getty said: “He loved his family very much and would do anything to help others.”

His entire family, including his three children have been devastated by his loss.

“Our lives will never be the same again”, she said.

Kettle pleaded guilty to manslaughter and appeared at Preston Crown Court for sentence.

The court heard he feels 'genuine remorse' for the effect on Mr Hamill’s family and suffers flashbacks to the incident.

The Honorary Recorder of Preston, Judge Robert Altham, said: “This was violence which at the time of its commission was utterly unprovoked.”

He added: “It was a premeditated assault on a man who was deliberately taken by surprise in a custodial environment.”

Three men have been found guilty of killing a man who was doused in petrol and set alight on his doorstep.

After more than 25 hours of deliberation jurors convicted Tuebrook man Connah Jenkinson of the murder of Robert Beattie in a brutal attack at his Skelmersdale home.

John O’Brien and Joseph McEwan were found guilty of manslaughter.

Jenkinson was also found guilty of arson with intent to endanger life in relation to an attack on a different home in the town on the same night.

O’Brien, from Walton and McEwan, from Fazakerley, were found guilty of arson being reckless as to whether the life of another would be endangered in relation to the same attack.

John Farrimond was acquitted of any wrongdoing in relation to that firebombing while a fifth defendant, Paul Hart, was cleared of both murder and arson with intent to endanger life.

The verdicts ended more than a week of tension at Preston Crown Court, where it had been alleged the three killers were part of a Liverpool drugs gang that carried out the attacks to deter “disloyalty”.

Four men have been given life sentences following the murder of Stephen Maguire in Southport.

27-year-old Stephen was fatally shot on Monday, March 16, despite the best efforts from North West Ambulance Service personnel who were called to attend to him at around 11.35pm.

The attack happened in Guildford Road, Birkdale, on the West Lancashire border.

Four men were sentenced for their part in Stephen's murder, following a recent trial at Liverpool Crown Court.

Karl Corson, 28 of Columbine Close, Melling was sentenced to life with a minimum of 33 years in prison.

Ryan Smith, 21, of Colquitt Street, Liverpool City Centre was sentenced to life with a minimum of 32 years in prison.

Patrick Moogan, 35, of Willow Way, Croxteth was sentenced to life with a minimum of 30 years in prison.

Jack Higgins, 22 of Sedgemoor Road, Norris Green was sentenced to life with a minimum of 29 years in prison.

Two men have been jailed for a total of more than five years after being caught carrying drugs on a train in Preston, which were likely to be destined for a nightclub and festival market.

Jai Mistry, 23, of Lyne View, Hyde, and Jacob Murray, 24, of Florence Street, Droylsden were arrested on a routine train patrol in July 2018 when the conductor and other passengers alerted officers at Preston that the pair were carrying drugs.

When approached by officers both admitted they were in possession of drugs and were subsequently arrested.

A search of the pair revealed they were carrying MDMA and ketamine.

Both Mistry and Murray pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Supply Class A and Conspiracy to Supply Class B.

The court heard how information found on the defendants’ phones revealed the drugs were likely destined for the nightclub and festival market and consisted of a considerable amount of MDMA and a small amount of ketamine to the value of almost £3,000.

They were sentenced to 32 months each at Preston Crown Court.

Shujaht Khan was arrested by Pendle Task Force for possession with intent to supply heroin and crack cocaine.

The 28-year-old, of St Pauls Road in Nelson, was stopped by officers in November last year and also had £2,520 in cash.

He was remanded in custody for 12 months before pleading guilty at court.

Khan was sentenced to 56 months in prison and the cash has been forfited.

A “nervous” drug dealer who began peddling cocaine and heroin after becoming homeless was locked up for more than two years.

Jose Ferreira, 33, was found with hundreds of pounds of drugs when stopped by plain clothes police officers in Southport town centre.

The dealer, most recently of Gravel Lane, Banks, was jailed at Liverpool Crown Court last week after earlier admitting possession with intent to supply.

Prosecuting, Henry Riding said: “At around 10 am on February 13 this year, officers in plain clothes were on duty on Castle Street investigating reports of drug dealing in the area.

“At that same time, the defendant arrived. A police officer recognised the defendant and identified himself as an officer, at which point the defendant became nervous and held onto his pockets.”

Mr Griffin explained that the police officer had previously seen Ferreira begging in the town centre and knew he did not have a job and wasn’t receiving any benefits.

Ferreira was searched and found to be carrying 17 wraps of heroin and 18 wraps of cocaine worth a total of £350.

He also had £125 in cash and a mobile phone which constantly received calls from various numbers on the way to the police station.

Defending, Sarah Griffin suggested that Ferreira had been exploited into drug dealing “due to vulnerability caused by homelessness.”

She said he had been addicted to cocaine for many years but no previous convictions for drugs offences.

Sentencing, Judge Andrew Teague QC said: “At the time you were living rough. You would not have had access to the sort of money to obtain this stock and the conclusion that this court is minded to reach is that there is strong possibility that you were exploited due to your position as a homeless person.”

But he said there were no grounds for a suspended sentence as he handed down a 28 month term.

A pair of cleaners who burgled the house they worked in, stealing £11,000 of sentimental jewellery and electrical items, were jailed.

Samantha Addison, 47, and Lisa Power, 40, were employed as cleaners at a family home in Victoria Parade, Ashton-on-Ribble in March.

Preston Crown Court heard the householders “showed them nothing but kindness” but described their behaviour in the course of their cleaning as “odd and needy.”

A few days before the burglary the pair stopped turning up for work completely.

Two days before the burglary on March 11 they were seen on the driveway of the property, but when the householder asked what they were doing, they made up an excuse and left.

It later emerged they were “scoping out” the house in preparation for the burglary which followed.

On March 11 the householder left for work but received a phone call from her son, who said he had returned to the house to find a patio door had been smashed.

A Macbook Pro and iPads had been stolen along with jewellery including a wedding ring and an eternity ring.

In a victim personal statement, the householder said the burglary was “unforgivable” and said she worked hard for her possessions.

Her daughter said she felt “violated, vulnerable and frightened in her own home” and was devastated to discover her laptop, containing thousands of irretrievable family photographs, had been stolen.

Power, formerly of Mersey Street, Ashton, was jailed for 36 months for the burglary, along with other offences, at an earlier hearing.

Addison, of Calder Street, Ashton, appeared for sentence and the court was asked to consider the impact of a prison sentence on her teenage daughter.

But the Honorary Recorder of Preston Judge Robert Altham said: “The fact remains this was a well planned, targeted and carefully executed burglary which has caused lasting harm to other people.

“The court has to send out a clear message - if that happens, you go to prison.”

A man who drove his dad’s high powered Mercedes at 160mph on the M65, before crashing into a bus shelter causing £8,000 of damage, was jailed.

Matthew Lomax, 22, hit the bus stop with such force the A35 AMG model spun round twice and a wheel flew off and rolled down the road.

The bus stop was completely decimated.

Preston Crown Court heard Lomax, an electrical engineer, was seen tearing down the M65 towards Blackburn at around 3am on December 30 2019, with three passengers on board.

Officers were unable to keep up with the sports car as it reached speeds of 150 and 160mph.

But when Lomax turned off the motorway and onto the A666 into Darwen, a pursuit started as police activated their blue lights and sirens and began to follow the speeding vehicle.

His passengers shouted at him to slow down, but Lomax continued to drive at speeds of up to 90mph into Darwen, across two mini roundabouts, before losing control of the car on a bend and crashing into the bus stop.

Judge Graham Knowles said: “The people in the car could have died, and you could have been one of them.”

Lomax fled the vehicle but returned a short time later.

He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and appeared at Preston Crown Court for sentence.

The court heard Lomax, of Whitworth Street, Manchester, suffered mental health difficulties and had developed poor coping strategies.

A month before the incident he had been caught behind the wheel of the same car under the influence of cannabis.

Judge Knowles said: “You were showing off.

“The damage that a car can do is not only death to the people in it. You had no idea who you might have encountered, if someone had been crossing on foot, on a bike or in a car…

“The outcome, whether it is death or some bruises - like mercifully here - does not depend on the driver. It is entirely random.”

In addition to the nine month prison sentence, Judge Knowles imposed a driving ban for three years and four months and ordered him to take an extended retest before he gets behind the wheel again.

A driver who was five times over the drug limit and double the drink drive limit killed a passenger after losing control of his car on a bend and smashing into a tree at 40mph.

Kurtis Allen had overtaken two vehicles as he approached a left-hand bend before losing control of the Volvo V70.

Police estimate the Volvo collided with the tree at 40mph, above the 30mph speed limit, before landing in a nearby house garden.

Emergency services were called to the scene in Southport Road, Scarisbrick, at around 9.50pm on May 29 last year.

The rear seat passenger, Antony Chubbs, 44, from Sefton, was sadly pronounced dead at the scene.

The front seat passenger, a 43-year-old man, also from Sefton, received fractures to his ribs, sternum and a punctured lung.

Allen also suffered spinal and rib fractures, with both men taken to Southport Hospital for treatment.

The 28-year-old driver was found to have been five times over the specified limit of Benzoylecgonine – a cocaine biproduct – and was more than double the drink-drive limit.

These were treated as aggravating factors in the judge’s sentencing decision.

He was summoned to appear at court for causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

Allen was sentenced to seven years and four months for death by dangerous driving and two years eight months for serious injury by dangerous driving. The sentences will run concurrently.

He was also banned from driving for 11 years eight months and will be required to take an extended re-test.

A 'greedy' woman and the boyfriend from Blackpool she used as a courier to import firearms for organised crime groups have been jailed for over 23 years.

Chelsea Addison paid for Steven Dema, of Central Drive, to travel to Amsterdam to collect a Zastava assault rifle, a Zoraki 9mm pistol and over 100 rounds of ammunition.

The guns and ammunition, in addition to £4,500 in cash, were recovered when Dema was stopped in a hired Mercedes sports car by Border Force officials at the Channel Tunnel terminal at Coquelles on 18 March.

National Crime Agency officers believe the duo had already successfully imported firearms for UK-based criminals.

Investigators established that dancer Addison had organised the same trip for Dema on three previous occasions, and the pair were using an encrypted messaging phone app called Wickr in order to conceal their criminal activities.

When questioned, Dema, who claimed he worked as a personal trainer and a bodyguard, told NCA officers he was involved with a dancer called Chelsea Addison who he hadn’t treated very well.

He said in retaliation for his behaviour she had organised for gang members to threaten him, and he had been forced to travel to Amsterdam to collect a suitcase from a car park.

Dema maintained that he did not look inside the suitcase and was going to take it straight to Addison, with whom he was in constant communication during the trip as she was checking on his whereabouts.

NCA officers arrested Addison at her Walsall home on April 30 for her controlling role in the importation.

Addison - who said that she worked as a dancer - claimed that Dema sometimes took her phone for days on end, and was making false claims to make her the scapegoat for his criminal activities.

However, DNA from the suitcase and its contents, analysis of phone data, and evidence of the trips to Amsterdam proved their stories were false and they had well-established roles in the importation of firearms.

At his trial, Dema abandoned his initial claim that he had acted under duress, and stated that he had been provided with expense payments of £1,000 by Addison for each trip to Amsterdam.

NCA investigators had also found that when Dema realised he was about to be stopped at Coquelles, he had sent messages to criminal associates involved in the importation.

Addison and Dema had taken city breaks to Europe together, and had discussed flying business class to Jamaica and the Maldives, as well as potential holidays to the Cayman Islands and Italy.

Martin Grace, Branch Commander at the NCA, said: "This was an attempt to import two lethal guns and enough live ammunition to cause untold damage if used on the streets.

“Illegal firearms are used by organised crime groups to dominate and intimidate communities, to enforce control over criminal markets like the class A drugs trade, and they ruin lives when used to cause death and serious injury.

“Stopping the supply of firearms is a priority for the NCA. Our investigation is not over and we will do everything we can to pursue those involved.”

Officers from the National Firearms Targeting Centre (NFTC), which is based within the NCA and provides the central intelligence picture of illegal firearms for UK law enforcement, supported the investigation.

Rob Hickinbottom, Head of the NFTC, said: “This investigation led to the conviction of these criminals and prevented dangerous weapons from reaching the streets of the UK. The NFTC endeavours to identify and disrupt the trafficking of such firearms in order to protect the public.”

In his sentencing remarks, His Honour Judge James, at Canterbury Crown Court stated: “Both of you seem to have been seduced into criminal activity by greed. It is apparent that you both craved the cash rich lifestyle which often accompanies serious crime.”

Dema, 30, was found guilty after a trial of firearms importation and pleaded guilty to possessing cannabis and cannabis resin and possession of a false identity document. He was sentenced to 11 years and nine months in jail.

Addison, also 30, pleaded guilty to firearms importation and jailed for 11 years and six months.

A dangerous thug who deliberately used his van to run over a man's leg before getting out and stabbing him was jailed.

Christopher Foster ploughed into Stephen Davies and pinned him against a wall with his Vauxhall Movano before getting out of the vehicle and attacking him with a knife causing horrific injuries.

The 34-year-old victim, a friend of Foster’s ex-girlfriend, suffered a compound fracture to his lower leg which later had to be amputated.

The incident happened at about 5am on May 20 on Snowden Avenue in Blackburn.

Foster was originally charged with attempted murder but pleaded guilty to Section 18 wounding. He also admitted possession of a knife and dangerous driving.

He appeared at Preston Crown Court on December 3 and was given a total term of 15 years.

This will consist of 11 years in prison and a four-year extended licence.

He was disqualified from driving for 16 years.

In a victim personal statement Mr Davies said he suffers from depression and nightmares and still has phantom pains where his leg was amputated.

A prolific shoplifter who targeted business in Rossendale was jailed after he was caught by an off-duty police officer.

Christopher Mather committed offences against shop owners in Rawtenstall and Haslingden in October and November.

The 44-year-old was spotted by a "sharp-eyed" off duty police officer in Bury.

He was later charged with eight shoplifting offences and a quantity of goods were recovered from a black Ford Focus. The length of the jail sentence has not been disclosed.

A violent thug poured petrol on a rival and his girlfriend as a family feud escalated in Skelmersdale.

Curtis Fox 'sloshed' the liquid through a car window when a row broke out during a chance meeting at a butty van near a petrol station.

Preston Crown Court heard that Fox, 24, was carrying the canister for an “innocent reason” but lost his cool after spotting Nathan Baker with Bethany Preston, the ex-girlfriend of his brother Warren Fox.

Defending, Janet Ironfield said that the ill-feeling between Mr Baker and the Fox family went beyond that relationship but stated that the incident was not pre-planned.

As well as admitting two counts of administering a noxious substance at an earlier hearing, Fox, of Egerton, Skelmersdale, had denied making threats to kill Miss Preston and to damage her mother’s car and those charges were not pursued by the Crown Prosecution Service when accepting his basis of plea.

Paul Brookwell, prosecuting, said: “As Bethany Preston and her boyfriend Mr Baker were getting breakfast from a butty van on Glebe Road, they looked up and she saw Curtis Fox cycling up. He pulled alongside the driver’s side window where Nathan Baker was sat.

“Nathan Baker put the window down and a conversation took place.

“She says things seemed to be alright between them, she says it was Mr Fox’s behaviour which changed.

“He started this by pouring petrol into the front of the car where they were sat. It mainly went on the dashboard and Nathan Baker, covering his t-shirt and shorts. It also went onto her leg and arm.

“The defendant was shouting ‘you rat’.

“Nathan Baker jumped out of the car. She believed he had a lighter.

“She remained in the car, Nathan Baker ran off.”

alleged to have made further threats.

However, as this was not pursued by the CPS when it accepted Fox’s basis of plea, it could not be considered by Judge Graham Knowles QC when sentencing.

The incident was reported to the police and Fox was made the subject of public appeals in which he was dubbed one of "Skelmersdale's most wanted".

He later handed himself in at a station in Preston, where in interview he said he “sloshed the petrol into the car”.

Mr Brookwell explained that Fox has 13 convictions for 28 convictions including robbery, battery, inflicting actual bodily harm, possession of an offensive weapon. Almost all of these were committed as a juvenile and Fox had only been convicted of one driving offence since his release from a young offenders institute in 2016.

Ms Ironfield told the court that Fox acknowledged that the ordeal was “shocking and frightening” for the victims but she emphasised that there was no attempt to ignite and he only intended to annoy them.

He also now recognises that his actions were “stupid and pointless”, she added, and that he knows he needs to change his behaviour to avoid criminality.

Ms Ironfield said that Fox has been diagnosed with ADHD but had stopped taking his medication and was instead “unwisely” attempting to self-medicate with cannabis and was under the influence during the incident.

She added: “He wants to move out of his local area to make a new start and separate from his peer group who have been a negative influence on him.”

In a letter read out in court, Fox apologised for his actions and pleaded for a lenient sentence due to conditions in prison, which involved spending 23 hours a day in his cell because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, Judge Knowles dismissed this on the ground that the crime was committed in July, when the severity of the outbreak and its effects were well known.

The judge said that if he was sentencing on the basis of threats being made to kill or set the car alight, the sentence would have been far greater but this was not the case. Likewise, a planned attack would have merited more jail time.

He said: “The Crown’s case is that you had a petrol canister in your hand innocently, for the only innocent reason there is, and you came across these people.

“You threw the petrol in the car over these people and for most people that is an absolutely terrifying thing to happen.

“Miss Preston did not know you didn’t have a lighter, she didn’t know what reckless, dangerous thing you were planning.

“This was a situation where she was scared, anxious, terrified of you.

Judge Knowles handed Fox an 18 month sentence and issued a restraining order banning him from contacting Miss Preston.

A violent offender who ambushed a journalist to try and stop her reporting her latest crime, was jailed for three years.

Tegan Philips targeted Wendy Barlow, “exploded” and mugged her, after she saw the victim taking notes during her case at Burnley Magistrates’ Court.

The 21-year-old “stalked” Ms Barlow to a nearby car park and then burst out of some bushes in front of her vehicle, shouting: "Have you been writing about me ?”

Philips repeatedly demanded Ms Barlow wind down the window and hand over her notebook and then pulled open the door and stood between the victim and the door when she refused.

Ms Barlow ignored further demands for her notepad and the defendant then dragged her out of her vehicle, away from the car and pulled the terrified victim to the ground as she tried to wrestle her ignition key from her right hand, a court was told.

Preston Crown Court heard how the assault only ended when a solicitor heard the victim shouting for help and Philips let Ms Barlow go as he went over.

The defendant then leaned into the victim’s vehicle, stole her iPad and walked off with it.

The hearing was told freelance court reporter Ms Barlow, 60, suffered soreness to her right side and was left too afraid to go to work after the ordeal.

The victim told the court that the time of the attack she had been vulnerable, as she had been recovering physically and emotionally after being diagnosed with early stage breast cancer the previous year.

Ms Barlow had had surgery for the third time just three months before the attack.

Philips, a “persistent offender,” with a record mainly for criminal damage and fighting with police officers, had appeared before the justices on the day of the assault for head-butting two house windows.

She is now starting her first term behind bars, after the attack, on September 10, last year.

The defendant, who, the court was told, has an emotionally unstable personality disorder, was detained under the Mental Health Act after the offence.

She didn’t tell the police what she did with the iPad and it was never recovered. Ms Barlow suspects the defendant, who was caught on CCTV with what appeared to be an iPad in her hand, threw it into the nearby canal.

Francis McEntee, prosecuting, said Philips had sought Ms Barlow out after she left the court, asking security staff: "Where has that woman gone?”.

He said: "Ms Barlow had thought she might be seriously hurt.”

The prosecutor said when Philips was arrested and interviewed, she made no comment. Philips had been before the courts seven times and had been convicted of 14 offences.

Ms Barlow, who has covered the courts for national and local newspapers and websites for more than 30 years, read out her Victim Personal Statement to the court herself.

The journalist, who started her career at the Rossendale Free Press in East Lancashire and qualified in 1983, described how she had gone through a “catalogue of traumatic events” before the offence and could have done without the stress and upset of yet another.

She told how she was in shock, distressed and shaking after the assault, she was tearful for much of the rest of the day and found it impossible to sleep because of flashbacks.

Ms Barlow said: "In the days after the attack, I was very nervous going about my daily business. I was scared and worried about going to work in Burnley, as Philips was not on any bail conditions after her arrest.

"Indeed, such was my concern I did not go to work for two weeks.”

The victim said when she eventually forced herself to go to Burnley, she felt stressed and her heart was thumping as she arrived on the car park and had to get out of her vehicle.

Ms Barlow added: "I felt uneasy the entire time I was in Burnley, was constantly looking around me and did not file any copy in my car at lunchtime as I often used to. All this said, however, I have known and had to face head-on some really tough challenges in my life in recent times, they haven’t broken me and neither will Tegan Philips.”

Ms Barlow told the hearing: "This case, of course, is not just about me. The hearing and sentence passed today will be watched with interest by my colleagues. This offence was a direct attack on the right of journalists to carry out our jobs, by a defendant intent on trying to prevent the lawful reporting of her case.

“Reporters have long been allowed to cover criminal courts, whether defendants like it or not and they cannot dictate to us what we do. It is our job to inform the public and it is vital that our freedom to carry out our jobs is not interfered with.

"Nobody has the right to use violence and intimidation to try and silence us, whatever their views on what we do and we are entitled, like everybody else, to be protected by the law as we go about our lawful duties.”

Lucy Wright, defending Philips, told the court a psychiatrist found she has an emotionally unstable personality disorder.

The barrister said: "She appears genuinely remorseful for the actions of that day, remorseful for the suffering that she caused to Ms Barlow and also for the pain arising from the assault that she perpetrated against her.”

Miss Wright said the root cause of the defendant’s offending was her declining mental health. She continued :” She was sectioned after the offence, such was the need for her to be treated.”

The barrister told the hearing defendant had tried to take her own life- the number of attempts since she was 15 was in double figures.

Miss Wright, who said Philips had a “tendency to act impulsively,” described the offence as “awful" and said: ”It was a behavioural explosion, triggered by the fear there would be information about her in the Press. She accepts she was entirely wrong.”

The barrister added:” She would receive very little assistance for her mental health in custody.“

Recorder Nick Clarke, QC, said Philips stalked Ms Barlow. She was determined to track her down and attack her, lay in wait and was violent and aggressive.

Sentencing, Recorder Clarke told Philips: "You had seen Wendy Barlow making notes, as she was entitled to and you did not wish her to publicise any further involvement in crime. You intentionally stalked her to her car, determined to try to stop her.”

Recorder Clarke added: "I appreciate you do not have a father figure in your life. Your mother died when you were 12, you became disruptive and were expelled from school. At an early age you became involved in drinking and taking drugs and I am also aware of the history of self -harm.”

He told Philips her history of violent and aggressive outbursts aggravated the case and continued:” Open justice requires reporting and the court must protect those who carry out this important role.”

He added: "It would be inappropriate to do anything other than impose an immediate custodial sentence."

Philips, from Lime Street, Clitheroe, had earlier admitted robbery.

After the hearing, Ms Barlow, from Greater Manchester, said: "I take no pleasure in seeing a troubled young woman locked up. However, in imposing the three year sentence, the judge has sent out the message that violence against journalists reporting on the work of the criminal justice system -and therefore carrying out a key role in open justice- will not be tolerated.”

She added: “I have been subjected to a lot of verbal abuse and a few threats over the years, but nothing remotely like this has ever happened before.”

Ms Barlow added: "I do believe Philips is genuinely sorry. She pleaded guilty and turned up to face the music and that helps me to move on."

An east Lancashire extremist who laughed after hearing about the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing was sent to prison for downloading a video on how to make a bomb to kill people.

Ataubaq Taj 'laughed' about the Arena bombing the day after the attack and even went as far as saying the heinous crime was 'fake' and instead a conspiracy committed by the UK government.

In a WhatsApp message, Taj said the terrorist attack was a "false flag for the upcoming elections", adding: "This is how desperate they are they will kill anyone for power."

In July 2019, Taj was arrested by police at his then Accrington home who found a USB stick in his shoe. He claimed it wasn't his, saying it had fallen through his trousers and into his boot.

When examined, it was found to contain extremist material - something that was also found on his phone, laptop, and CDs.

He was arrested again in January this year after police executed a warrant at an address in Salford.

Manchester Crown Court was told that Taj became 'increasingly radicalised' since 2010, when he was prosecuted for a 'racist' public order offence.

He said 'white ba****** all need blowing up' and that 'Jews will get theirs'.

A judge said Taj had a 'significant volume' of terrorist publications, including a 'grotesque' video which gave instructions on how to kill someone with a knife and how to make an improvised explosive device.

The video also showed the murder of two men.

Prosecuting, Alistair Richardson said that Taj had displayed a 'total lack of insight or acceptance', and said he had 'entrenched extreme views'.

Taj, 34, now of Hacking Street, Salford, was convicted after trial of possessing a document likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism. He received a six year sentence, five of which will be spend behind bars.

Two-thirds of his sentence will have to be served before the Parole Board decide whether it is safe for him to be released.

A 30-year-old man was convicted of supplying heroin and crack cocaine.

Shayzul Miah, who resides in Accrington, was sentenced to 58 months in prison following a hearing at Preston Crown Court.

Police said Miah was convicted of supplying the class A drugs between October 2018 and May 2019, as a result of investigations conducted by the Neighbourhood Team and the East Intelligence Department.

Gary Breeze was jailed after trying to smuggle prohibited items including drugs into prison.

Lancaster Area Police said Breeze was convicted following a visit to HMP Lancaster Farms in May 2018.

Breeze, 41, of Eccles Road, Swinton, was jailed at Preston Crown Court for nine months.

A police spokesperson said: "Taking prohibited articles into prison is a serious offence and will not be tolerated."

A 26-year-old from Lancaster was jailed after pleading guilty to possession with intent to supply heroin and crack cocaine and possession of criminal property.

Robert Rowntree was caught as part of Operation Belsize run by Lancaster Police.

Officers targeted the dealing of class A drugs in the Lancaster area running from March to July 2020.

During the course of the operation more than £9,000 worth of class A drugs where recovered, along with £17,572 in cash.

Sgt Adie Knowles of the Lancaster Target Crime Team said: "We are happy that this operation has resulted in this sentence for Mr Rowntree.

"We hope this sends a message to anyone involved in the dealing of heroin and crack cocaine in Lancaster and Morecambe that we will target you."

Two bungling thieves who used power tools to break into a Preston supermarket before trying to pull a cash machine away using a car were jailed for a total of eight years.

Nathan Green and Joseph Pike were part of a three-man gang who targeted the Co-op store on Granton Walk, Ingol.

Police were called to the scene at around 10.30pm on July 11 and found that power tools had been used to gain access to the shop.

A Kia Sportage was then attached to the cash machine and attempts had been made to pull it from the premises.

However the offenders left empty handed after the Kia’s bumper came off.

The vehicle was found abandoned nearby but officers were able to identify a second vehicle – a BMW – also being used by the group.

A short time later it was located and pursued before eventually brought to a stop near Oldham.

Both the Kia and the BMW had been reported stolen prior to the incident.

Green, 37, of Sale Road, Manchester and Pike, 30, of Tabley Street, Ashton-under-Lyne, both pleaded guilty to burglary at Preston Crown Court.

Green was sentenced to 45 months in prison with a further 15 months to run consecutively for dangerous driving.

Pike was sentenced to 36 months behind bars for burglary.

A third man - Anthony Lees, 35, of no fixed address – was charged with burglary and taking a vehicle without the owner’s consent but failed to appear at court.

A bench warrant has since been issued for his arrest.

A remorseless thief who stole Christmas presents including an Xbox, a laptop, two tablet computers from an Accrington house was jailed.

Warren Hamer denied his guilt right up until his trial was due to start claiming that he couldn’t have fit through the window of the address on Nutter Road.

The 41-year-old broke into the property on December 9 last year by smashing a window at the rear of the address.

Officers investigating the incident found CCTV which showed Hamer in the immediate vicinity of the house.

They were able to track him towards Accrington carrying a stolen rucksack containing the stolen goods.

Hamer appeared at Preston Crown Court for the start of his trial and pleaded guilty to burglary.

He was jailed for four-and-a-half years.

A pair of drug dealers were jailed having been caught peddling cocaine in Leyland.

Sean Grindle and Sam Higgins were caught by officers from the South Tactical Operations Unit on July 20 this year.

Police said the offenders tried to flee the area but were both detained and searched.

Grindle, 21, and Higgins, 22, were found in possession of a quantity of cocaine, cannabis, six mobile phones and cash.

Further investigations showed the men were responsible for the supply of drugs within Leyland.

They were sentenced at Burnley Crown Court and pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply Class A and Class B drugs.

Grindle, of Waterloo Close, Liverpool, also pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving whilst disqualified and no insurance.

He was sentenced to 31 months imprisonment and a forfeiture order was made in relation to the drugs and cash.

Higgins, of no fixed address, was sentenced to 62 months imprisonment having also been sentenced for two counts of possession with intent to Supply Class A and possession of a bladed article from 2019.

A forfeiture order was made in relation to the drugs, cash and knife.

A man rained a torrent of punches and stamped on his victim’s head during a sustained attack inside a kebab shop.

Drunken Andra Walker aimed a succession of quickfire punches at Alex Jones after a night out in Southport town centre.

As Mr Jones lay helpless on the floor, the 22-year-old repeatedly kicked him in the head before turning his attention to the shop’s owner who had attempted to intervene.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that Sinan Sucan had been out of his Istanbul shop, on West Street, but returned as the brutal attack was unfolding.

Mr Sucan tried to break up the attack but was left with multiple facial fractures and long-term pain.

During the ordeal, Walker’s now wife Caprice Knowles, 21, attacked Mr Jones’s girlfriend Natalie Ledsham, hitting her in the face, pulling her hair and knocking her to the ground. In that attack, hair extensions worth £350 were ripped out and a Pandora bracelet was also broken.

Prosecuting, Simon Duncan said that Mr Jones and Ms Ledsham were in the shop shortly before 3am when the Walker, Knowles, friend Joe Wilkinson and others walked in among a large group. At first, all were talking happily but an apparent remark about the Walker and Knowles being travellers sparked a furious response.

He said: “The defendant and his girlfriend were extremely drunk. Ms Knowles said something like ‘have you got a problem with me?’

“The male, Joe Wilkinson, said ‘have you got a problem with her?’”

CCTV footage shown in court showed Walker approach the couple before aiming a flurry of punches at Mr Jones as Ms Ledsham stood between the pair.

Jones was knocked to the floor and despite the efforts of staff and others in the group saying, ‘stop, he’s had enough”, Walker continued the sickening chain of stamps starting in front of the counter and ending up behind it.

After a few seconds of break from the violence, Walker and Mr Wilkinson then set upon Sucan, with Walker landing blows to the face before aiming multiple kicks.

In a victim impact statement summarised by Mr Duncan, the shop owner said he still suffered frequent pain and numbness one year on from the attack. His injuries included multiple facial fractures and delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic means he is still waiting for surgery to repair his right eye socket.

Mr Sucan has also suffered sleepless nights as a result of the attack and, as well as worrying about running into the group in the street, is actively looking to sell his business for fear of future incidents.

The pair handed themselves in after Merseyside Police launched a public appeal using images from CCTV footage captured that morning.

Now married and living in Leicestershire, the pair attended Copy Lane police station in Bootle after the appeal and gave no comment in interview.

At an earlier hearing, Walker pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm on Mr Sucan and inflicting actual bodily harm on Mr Jones, while Knowles pleaded guilty to inflicting ABH on Ms Ledsham.

Defending, Edward Moss said the attack was out of character for both defendants who have no other convictions before or since.

He said both were extremely remorseful and were too disgusted by their actions to watch the footage in conference with him.

He pointed to positive pre-sentence reports and said Walker had an offer of full-time work if he was spared jail.

Sentencing, Judge Andrew Menary QC labelled the actions as “disgraceful” and said there was no alternative to immediate custody.

Knowles sobbed and hugged her husband in the dock as he was given a 22 month sentence. She was given a 12 month community order, including a three month curfew between 8pm-6am.

Five men and one woman have were jailed for running a brothel in Blackburn which exploited young Romanian women to work as prostitutes.

Detectives said the gang’s business model was to advertise the sexual services of young women on the internet and to move women from town to town.

They applied a particular premium to the feature that a girl was “new in town;” often the banner headline on the Viva Street website, for example offering a woman for hire as “Bella” in Blackpool in one week, and as “Kathy” in Whitehaven the next.

The racket was uncovered after people living in a street in Blackburn raised concerns with the police that one of the houses was being used as a brothel.

Neighbours raised concerns of a ‘conveyor belt’ of men turning up to the address late at night or in the early hours of the morning and noises coming from the house and an investigation revealed that the address at St Stephen’s Road was just one address in a network of brothels being operated in Blackburn, Burnley and Preston, and further afield in Leeds, Bradford, Nottingham and London.

Six of the defendants pleaded guilty to commercial exploitation of a number of women in a case that was brought despite not being supported by the victims.

They were sentenced at Preston Crown Court and failed for a total if 10 years.

They included:

They will all be deported when their prison terms come to an end.

A violent criminal with a “troubling obsession with dangerous knives” was jailed for 20 years for killing Blackpool man Kris Kam.

Mr Kam was described by his brother as “a loving soul who adored his family” but on October 26 2019 was stabbed to death as he rode his bike in a Blackpool street.

No motive has ever been given for the killing, but a court heard there was “a tragic possibility this was a case of mistaken identity.”

Christopher Carrington, 27, and Kevin Gracia, 26, were convicted of manslaughter following a trial at Preston Crown Court.

Carrington was also convicted of a street robbery the previous day, along with Shaquille Cumberbatch, 27.

The court heard Carrington habitually showed off “ferocious” weapons and made video clips of the knives using mobile phones.

On the weekend of October 26 2019 he carried out two stabbings in Blackpool, killing Mr Kam and leaving another, Robbie Harrison, seriously injured on the ground.

When Mr Harrison’s cousin tried to call him after the attack, Carrington answered the phone and taunted him, saying: “Your bro’s jaws on the floor” before waving a knife in front of the phone on a video call.

The following day, Carrington “stalked” Kris Kam as he rode his bike through the streets of Blackpool.

As Mr Kam rode down Queen Victoria Road, Carrington and Kevin Garcia, jumped from a Volkswagen Golf and rushed at him, knocking him from his bike and to the ground.

Garcia punched and kicked the defenceless victim, before Carrington stabbed him three times in the legs, severing an artery.

The Honorary Recorder of Preston Judge Robert Altham, sentencing, said: “Kris Kam was 35 years old when he was killed in a cowardly attack by men armed with a knife.

“On that day he presented no risk to anybody. He was effectively defenceless.

“I have no doubt he died without ever knowing why on earth he was attacked as he was.”

Carrington and Garcia, both from London, were convicted of manslaughter following a month long trial at Preston Crown Court.

Carrington was also convicted of robbery, along with Shaquille Cumberbatch, in connection with the attack on Mr Harrison.

Judge Altham said Carrington was a dangerous offender who posed a significant risk to the public.

He jailed him for 20 years with a three year extended licence period for manslaughter and seven years for robbery to run concurrently.

Garcia was jailed for nine years and nine months for manslaughter and Cumberbatch was jailed for seven years and six months for robbery.

The jury returned a verdict of not guilty to the charge of murder.

A fourth defendant, Munochismo Eriken, 28, was found not guilty on all counts.

A vicious thug who assaulted and burnt a woman before threatening to bomb her house and send people to hurt her family after she complained to police was jailed.

Joshua Martin Brodie was reported to detectives following the 'serious' attacks in Blackpool.

Police said the 26-year-old offender started a 'campaign of intimidation' against the victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, to try and get her to withdraw the allegations against him.

Brodie, of Normos Avenue, threatened he would bomb her house and send people to hurt her and her family.

He pleaded guilty at Preston Crown Court to offences including assault.

Judge Jefferies QC sentenced Brodie to a total sentence of 12 years and classed him as a 'dangerous offender'.

This included eight years imprisonment and a further four years extended licence period.

A drug dealer who was caught with heroin after police stopped his car was jailed.

Liaqat Hussain was driving along Union Road, Oswaldtwistle, in a black Audi A4 on September 29 last year when he was stopped by officers.

They discovered Hussain was in possession of 40 wraps of heroin worth a street value of £400.

Police also seized mobile phones which were used to contact drug customers and 'various denominations of cash' worth more than £3,000.

Hussain, of Claret Street, Accrington, was convicted of possession with intent to supply heroin at Preston Crown Court.

He was sentenced to a total of two years in prison and a forfeiture order was made to seize the cash under Section 23 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.

A Blackpool street dealer who was caught out in an undercover sting was jailed for four years and three months.

Michael McGraw, 32, sold heroin and crack to officers posing as drug users on three separate occasions in September and November 2019.

Preston Crown Court heard McGraw fell into drug dealing after becoming homeless as a result of his own drug use last year.

On September 6, November 5 and November 21, officers known only as “Frank” and “Robbie” were on patrol in Blackpool, carrying out an operation to target street dealing in the resort.

They called a drug dealing phone, attributed to ‘Scouse Ryan’ and were directed to meet up with McGraw, who sold them the drugs.

The officers bought a total of 0.95g of heroin and 0.16g of crack, handing over £70 to McGraw.

The Honorary Recorder of Preston Judge Robert Altham, sentencing, said: “This defendant is someone who has clearly struggled with drug addiction himself. He knows for himself the disease, deprivation, degradation and death that results from the items he was pedalling.

“The court is bound to treat the dealing of class A drugs as a serious matter.”

The court heard McGraw ran up a significant drug debt which resulted in him having his leg snapped and metal pins inserted in May 2020.

After a period of abstinence from class A drugs, he fell back into old habits and on September 1 2020 carried out a smash and grab raid at B & M Bargains.

CCTV showed him looting the store, stealing £190 of alcohol, which he sold to buy more drugs.

At the time of the break in he was in breach of a suspended sentence imposed in December 2019 for theft, after he snatched cash from an elderly man outside an ATM.

Judge Altham said: “He (McGraw) has a frankly dreadful record for offences such as theft, dishonesty, and some dwelling house burglaries.”

The court heard McGraw, of St Annes Road South, Lytham St Annes, had tried to break free of his addiction and former drug associates last year and had gone to live with his brother.

But he was “haunted by his drugs debt” and was unable to make a fresh start.

He pleaded guilty to five counts of possession with intent to supply class A drugs, burglary and breach of a suspended sentence.

Judge Altham jailed him for three years and nine months for the drugs offences and activated six months of his suspended sentence for theft.

He also sentenced him to 12 weeks to run concurrently for the burglary at B&M Bargains.

A 'dangerous and predatory' Burnley teenager was locked up after a vile sexual assault and shocking robbery in east Lancashire that saw him threatened to kill a woman.

It was at around 11.40pm on December 13 last year that Daniel Swarbrick targeted one of the victims of his crimes.

Swarbrick, then just 17, started following a 47-year-old woman after she became separated from her friends on a night out.

After shouting something at her which she did not hear, he ran directly towards her and demanded her phone and any cash she had on her.

Swarbrick grabbed her handbag but the victim fought back. He then threatened to sexually assault her, grabbing her chest area and pushing his hands down her trousers.

He then threatened to kill the victim.

She was pulled to the ground and dragged while the offender continued to pull at her bag. She eventually lost her grip and Swarbrick, of Oxford Road, Burnley, ran off with it.

A day later, Lancashire Police received reports of a knife point robbery at around 2pm at a convenience store in Every Street, Nelson.

Swarbrick had entered the shop and threatened a worker with a knife before demanding cash from the till. He was disturbed and made off from the scene.

Following a number of enquiries and a public appeal for information Swarbrick was arrested and charged.

He pleaded guilty to two robbery offences, two sexual assaults and two counts of possessing an offensive weapon.

Swarbrick, now 18, was given a six and a half year custodial sentence at Preston Crown Court, with an extended licence of one and a half years.

A drunk driver who attempted a U-turn on the M6 and crashed into another car, seriously injuring three people, has been jailed.

Moses Khombe, 41, of Lake View, Dunstable, had spent the evening of March 15 this year drinking at a friend’s house in Stoke-on-Trent, before embarking on a journey on the motorway as he tried to get home to Bedfordshire.

However, he realised he was travelling northbound instead of southbound and attempted to do a U-turn across three lanes of traffic, near Charnock Richard Services at around 10.30pm.

He narrowly missed several vehicles but collided in lane three with a Vauxhall Grandland which was travelling at around 70mph.

All four people in the Vauxhall suffered injuries, with three of them serious. One of the passengers spent almost two months in hospital undergoing three operations while the other two suffered broken bones and bruising.

Khombe was uninjured in the crash.

Photos have revealed the aftermath of the collision, showing both cars left in a state of ruin.

When Khombe’s blood was tested for alcohol following the incident it was found to contain 203mgs of alcohol per 100mls of blood. The legal limit is 80mgs of alcohol.

In court he pleaded guilty to three counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, dangerous driving and drink-driving.

Appearing at Preston Crown Court, Khombe was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison, handed a driving ban of four years and five months and was told he must take an extended test and pay costs to his victims.

A 17-year-old boy has been jailed after stabbing two teenagers in Blackburn that almost saw one of the victims bleed to death.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison after pleading guilty to section 18 wounding and causing actual bodily harm.

He was also served with an indefinite restraining order to prevent him from contacting the victims.

It comes after police officers rushed to give first aid to the two victims after at the scene of the crimes in Ullswater Close, Blackburn, at around 11pm on Wednesday, October 30 last year.

The first victim suffered a five centimetre stab wound to his abdomen resulting in injuries to his liver and lungs, and also caused a build-up of fluid around his heart.

Officers had to give him life-saving first aid to stop him from bleeding to death.

The second victim sustained minor injuries.

A Blackpool man was jailed for eight years after breaching a sexual harm prevention order multiple times.

Kyle Sweet, 20, of Knowsley Avenue, was handed a five-year sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) in August 2019 for previous offending.

The order prohibited contacted with a female under the age of 16 and included strict guidelines around internet and mobile phone use.

In October 2019 officers from Blackpool Police’s Managing Sexual Offenders and Violent Offenders unit (MOSOVO) attended his address on an unannounced visit.

Sweet could not provide two mobile phones and a USB device for inspection. He also failed to tell officers he had created social media and email accounts.

He was arrested and later released under investigation.

In January this year he was re-arrested for contacting a 13-year-old girl, again in breach of his SHPO.

Sweet was later charged with 13 offences including:

• Two offences of sexual communication with a child.• Ten offences of breaching a sexual harm prevention order.• One offence of stalking.

He appeared at court in October and pleaded guilty. Sweet was sentenced to eight years in prison at Preston Crown Court

A man who stabbed his friend to death during birthday celebrations was jailed for life.

Janis Mikitovs was celebrating his 36 birthday on March 28 and had invited his friend Kristaps Muzikants to come to his house in Skelmersdale the evening before to celebrate with him.

But the celebrations turned to horror after Mikitovs stabbed his friend following a night of drinking.

Mr Muzikants, 30, died in the early hours of March 28 as a result of a stab wound to the abdomen.

A post-mortem examination showed he had suffered a single 23-centimetre knife wound which penetrated his liver and sliced through a major vein, causing catastrophic internal bleeding.

As police attended the scene, Mikitovs initially claimed that his friend had gone outside and he had found him injured in the street. He later changed his story but claimed he had no knowledge of how Mr Muzikants got his injury.

Mikitovs, 36, of Acregate, Skelmersdale, had denied murder but was convicted following a trial at Preston Crown Court.

He was jailed for life and will serve a minimum term of sixteen and a half years before he is eligible to apply for parole.

Two thugs who threw petrol at a man's flat door in a revenge arson attack over an earlier stabbing incident were jailed.

Lewis Clough and Thomas Bank targeted the victim's home on Rothesay Road, Blackburn, at around 6.20am on November 21 last year.

The 36-year-old occupant was unable to exit the building via the external stairs, resulting in him and his dog, escaping through a first-floor window.

Lancashire Constabulary said the blaze is reported to have caused £50,000 worth of damage after also spreading to the flat below containing two other people.

Preston Crown Court heard how, four days before the attack, Clough had been in a fight which had left him with a stab wound to his back.

The arson attack was carried out as revenge for the stabbing, police said.

Clough, 33 and Bank, 25, were arrested after reports of an assault on Moorland Avenue shortly after the fire.

Bank was taken to hospital to be treated for his injuries where he made a confession. He was arrested in hospital and Clough was arrested later that day.

Both men were sentenced at Preston Crown Court after pleading guilty to arson with intent to endanger life.

Clough, of Clarence Street, Darwen, who was out on license when he committed the offence, was sentenced to six years in prison with a further two-and-a-half years on license. Bank, of Hilton Road, Darwen, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison.

A boxer was put behind bars after an "extremely violent" attack on a colleague after a work party that saw the victim hospitalised for weeks.

James Lord, from Bacup, was at a retirement party at an Indian restaurant in Bury, Greater Manchester, alongside the victim.

The duo both worked for a car recovery company, the court heard.

The court heard that before the incident, the duo had a 'good' professional relationship. But the victim claimed that 33-year-old Lord became 'jealous' of him because he was promoted above him at work.

The victim also said that Lord, who was a boxer, had recently 'bulked up'.

Lord and the victim were both at the retirement party on Saturday, November 23, 2019. Lord, who was not drinking as he was driving, offered the victim a lift home after the party.

After taking the man home, Lord was invited inside where they drank vodka together.

The victim then said he had no recollection of what happened after 10pm.

Later than night, the victim's wife found Lord in the bath while her husband was in the living room with a swollen eye and blood coming out of his nose. His wife asked Lord to leave the house.

Meanwhile the victim initially refused to go to hospital before an ambulance was then called, prosecutor Justin Hayhoe explained.

In total, he had to spend 19 days in hospital on a high dependency unit after suffering bleeding on the brain, as well as collapsed lungs and several rib fractures.

His total time in hospital was around four weeks, the court heard.

After the incident, Lord claimed the victim had attacked him first through a headbutt. Lord then claimed the man fell down the stairs, which would account for some of his injuries but not the most serious ones he suffered.

But Lord accepted to punching and kicking the man, which prosecutors accepted.

Defending, Rob Kearney described Lord as a "hard working family man" who had acted in response to the headbutt but accepted he 'went well beyond any self defence'. He said Lord had expressed remorse, and that there had been a lack of premeditation to the attack.

Sentencing, Recorder Nick Clarke QC jailed him for 22 months.

"This was an extremely violent attack upon him," the judge told Lord. "You are a powerfully built, trained boxer and could easily have avoided further violence.

"However, you chose to respond with extreme force by punching and kicking him. No doubt your experience as a boxer contributed to the way in which the blows were struck."

Lord, of Christchurch Street, admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm.

Three men were jailed for more than 10 years after cannabis worth around £2.6 million was seized in Darwen.

Police said haul is one of the largest cannabis set-ups ever found in Lancashire.

Officers raided a unit at Apex Trading Estate on October 9 last year and found Aurel Gjuzi, Sulejman Lloni and Jacek Pieczur living inside.

A total of 4,537 plants at various stages of growth and 27kg of dried cannabis were discovered which together have a street value of £2,606,620.

The factory was powered by a series of underground cables in order to bypass the electricity supply, which took Electricity Northwest 13 hours to rectify.

Some £2,425 in cash along with a number of mobile phones was also recovered from the unit on Lower Eccleshill Road.

Gjuzi, 25, Lloni, 32, and Pieczur, 25, were all convicted at Preston Crown Court of producing a class B drug.

Gjuzi and Pieczur were each jailed for three years and Lloni was locked up for 54 months.

A man who fled the United Kingdom after committing a robbery in Blackpool has been extradited back to the country after living in the United States of America for a decade.

James Bernard Flynn stood trial at Preston Crown Court in 2010 charged with possession of an imitation firearm while committing a robbery in the Blackpool area.

While the now 55-year-old attended court for his trial, Flynn jumped bail and fled the UK before his verdict was given.

Flynn, who has dual nationality, headed to the US where he remained for 10 years.

In his absence, he was found guilty and sentenced on August 10, 2010.

A Preston Crown Court jury convicted him of assault with intent to rob and possessing a firearm over the incident at a house on Stamford Avenue, Blackpool. At the house, he pointed a gun at a teenage girl while another man went upstairs to take a stash of drugs.

Flynn, from Liverpool, was given an indeterminate sentence as a dangerous offender with a minimum term of five years and 188 days.

Now, in a recent turn of events, an address for Flynn was found in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and he was arrested by police in the States for matters not related to his crime in Blackpool.

He was sentenced to jail time in the state penitentiary.

At this point, Lancashire Constabulary were alerted to the legal proceedings across the pond due to his status as a wanted man in the UK. Extradition proceedings were then started to bring Flynn back to the UK at the end of his sentence in the US.

The US Marshal Service facilitated the extradition and he appeared at Preston Crown Court on August 28 where the judge ordered he serve the sentence handed down in 2010.

He will be extradited from the UK following his sentence.

A pervert who exposed himself to three young girls within hours of each other was jailed for 15 months.

Richard Graham exposed himself to a 14-year-old girl in Padiham and she ran into a nearby shop before the police were called.

It followed earlier incidents in Tottington and Salford.

A judge said each of the children, the youngest aged 12, had been 'traumatised in their own way'.

Prosecutors told how at about 3pm, Graham exposed himself to a 12-year-old girl in Tottington.

He was driving a black Audi before getting out and pushing her into an alley. She was able to escape by getting on a bus, reports the MEN.

"I tried to scream but my voice would not come out," she said in a statement read by prosecutors at the Minshull Street Crown Court hearing.

The child said she 'didn't sleep for weeks' after the incident.

Hours later, at about 5pm, Graham was in Salford and exposed himself to a 13-year-old girl.

Her father searched the area and was able to note the details of Graham's car, and passed it onto police.

Then just before 8pm, Graham was in Padiham, Lancashire, where he exposed himself to a 14-year-old girl. She ran into a nearby shop and the police were called.

Officers tracked Graham through his car, to his house on Bolton North Road, Ramsbottom.

All three victims picked out Graham in a video identity procedure.

Sentencing, Judge John Edwards said Graham's behaviour has caused 'significant and enduring trauma to their victims, and huge distress to parents and families'.

Graham will have to sign the sex offender's register for 10 years.

A convicted murderer who ‘flung poo’ through his cell door must serve a further 28 months behind bars.

Gary Rogers, 32, was serving life at HMP Garth when he showered three prison guards and a fellow inmate in human waste on February 22 last year.

That afternoon, guards were taking an inmate from the segregation wing to the exercise yard when they noticed the viewing panel in Rogers’ cell door was damaged.

As they passed the cell, Rogers squirted the disgusting mixture from a black plastic bottle.

The men immediately recognised the ‘pungent smell’ and recoiled in disgust.

As their clothes, boots and body worn cameras were sprayed with excrement, Rogers cheered and laughed from his cell.

One of the officers, who was first in the firing line, was so sickened, he ran straight to a shower and jumped in, fully clothed.

The other officers' uniforms were immediately removed and destroyed, and the inmate was given biohazard cleansing and offered a shower.

The men said they felt “violated” by the attack - commonly known as ‘potting’.

Rogers pleaded guilty to three counts of administering a noxious substance and assault on an emergency worker.

He appeared at Preston Crown Court to face sentence.

He told the court: “I know my behaviour as disgusting and there was no reason for me to act like that.

“I was kept in segregation for nine months and it must have had an effect on my mental state.”

In 2007 Rogers was jailed for life with a minimum term of 14 years for his role in the killing of dad-of-two Daron Hargreaves in a four-on-one attack in Stoke-on-Trent.

He was just 18 at the time.

No explanation was given for the attack but it is believed to have started in a row over a roll-up cigarette.

Rogers would be eligible to apply for parole for the killing in 2021 but in 2016 he was convicted of an assault on a prison guard and sentenced to a further 28 months.

He has now been transferred to HMP Dovecote where he has engaged in education and work as a wing painter, the court heard.

Judge Philip Parry sentenced Rogers to 28 months concurrent for each of the three offences of administering a noxious substance and a further five months to run concurrently for assault of an emergency worker.

Eight members of an organised crime gang who conspired to supply Class A drugs on Burnley's streets and exploit vulnerable children into selling drugs were jailed for a combined total of nearly 60 years.

In early 2019, Operation Croatia was launched by East Targeted Crime Unit, specifically looking at disrupting the activities of the gang members associated with the ‘AK line’.

The crime group was headed by brothers Junaid Khan and Zain Khan, who directed street dealers including children, to sell crack cocaine and heroin on their behalf, Preston Crown Court heard.

During the 15-month conspiracy, drugs were distributed from Zain Khan’s Burnley home to street dealers, who in return would bring back cash – at times stuffing bundles through Khan’s letter box.

Next in the hierarchy of the gang structure were ‘lieutenants’ Mohammed Jabbar and Shohib Safdar, who were responsible for directing dealers where to sell drugs and ensuring they always had a ready supply.

Co-defendants Morgan Ellis, Gemma Jackson, Alan Pickard, Josh Jackson, Tracey Brown and Darren Catlow were either managers or street dealers within the gang.

The gang exploited 12 teenagers, three aged just 14, into selling drugs as part of the conspiracy, which ran from May 2018 to August 2019.

Khans and Jabbar directed orders to the children – sometimes still in school uniform - who would arrive at an address used by the gang to collect drugs and then be deployed back out to locations elsewhere in the Burnley area in order to conduct drug deals.

The gang was placed under surveillance and all members of the conspiracy were caught engaging in criminal behaviour of some kind across Burnley. On many occasions they were even filmed in the act.

During the course of the investigation, officers arrested countless people connected to the AK Line.

When phones were seized, the conspirators would either quickly buy a new handset and register it under the same number or register a new number for the AK Line and then send out a message to customers advertising that they were ‘back in business’.

Significant quantities of heroin, crack cocaine and cash, as well as drug paraphernalia, drug dealer lists and mobile phones were seized from addresses and vehicles connected to the group.

On one occasion officers recovered a silver Mercedes ‘stash car’, parked close to properties associated with the Khans, filled with drugs and money. On another occasion officers seized a Volkswagen Polo car which was being used to store drugs and found £10,000 in cash, as well as various amounts of crack cocaine and heroin pre-packaged for street deals.

A lorry driver who killed a 'beautiful and beloved' 91-year-old woman as he blindly crashed into stationary traffic on the M58 was jailed for three years and four months.

Leon Stott, of St Davids Road, Leyland, caused a horrific six car smash when he took his eyes off the road for a “considerable” period while using cruise control at 56mph.

Despite clear conditions and a flat carriageway on January 8 last year, the 35-year-old did not notice the queuing traffic which had built up after an earlier fatal collision on the motorway.

Two people were seriously injured in the crashes that followed, as vehicles were shunted as far as 66 metres into the air, across lanes and into the central reservation.

Maragaret Harrison, from Orrell, had been on the way to a hospital appointment but was trapped in her car for an hour before she could be freed by emergency workers and then spent a week in agony before she died from her injuries.

Margeret’s daughter told Preston Crown Court that her death had left a huge hole in the family, of which she was a central figure.

Another of the victims, Craig Howroyd, described the injuries which have left him confused, exhausted and unable to pick up his baby son.

After the crash, Stott told police officers: “I’m the idiot who caused. I wasn’t paying attention, I was fiddling with the temperature gauge.”

Two county line drug dealers caught in possession of heroin and crack cocaine in Chorley by police were jailed.

It came as police made arrests at Astley Park and Pall Mall in the town following pro-active targeting work.

On July 13, of this year, plain clothes officers from the South Divisional Target Team searched a man in Astley Park after seeing him acting suspiciously.

Officers found 34-year-old John Vincent Lloyd in possession of over £300 in cash, two mobile phones and a number of individual wraps of Class A drugs.

Lloyd was arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply Class A drugs.

As he was searched in the custody suite, Lloyd was found in possession of an additional 60 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine.

On September 16, Lloyd, of St Catherine’s Road, Bootle, Liverpool, appeared at Preston Crown Court where he pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply Class A drugs.

He was sentenced to three years and nine months imprisonment.

On July 26, 2020, plain clothes officers from the South Divisional Target Team saw a man acting suspiciously around Pall Mall, Chorley.

Officers searched the man and found him in possession of over £300 in cash and two mobile phones.

Subsequently, James Richard Heyes, 61, was arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of drugs.

A total of 98 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine were found hidden in Heyes’ underwear when he was searched at the custody suite.

Heyes, of Hollinshead Street, Chorley, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply Class A drugs when he appeared at Preston Crown Court.

He was sentenced to five years and seven months imprisonment.

In both cases forfeiture orders were made for the seized cash and destruction orders were made for the drugs.

Anthony Gilmartin was jailed for 36 months for supplying class A drugs and possessing an offensive weapon.

The 32-year-old, from Lancaster, was detained by officers on the canal tow path near to Quarry Road on March 16.

He has found in possession of a quantity of heroin and crack cocaine and a knife. A further search of his home address uncovered more drugs.

The total value of drugs in the case were £2,550.

Gilmartin pleaded guilty to the offences at Preston Crown Court and was sentenced to 36 months in prison after being on remand since being charged back in March.

A county lines drug dealer who stashed cocaine in his underwear to avoid detection is behind bars.

Paul Bolton travelled to Chorley for Merseyside and was stopped by plain clothed officers on Eaves Green Road in December last year

The 22-year-old tried to escape and was chased by police and later found hiding in a garden in Moor Road.

Lancashire Police said he was also seen trying to discard a bag containing wraps of crack cocaine.

Bolton was arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply Class A drugs and found in possession of a mobile phone containing drug-related messages and more than £200 in cash

During a search in custody he was found to have more wraps of crack cocaine hidden in his underwear.

Bolton, of Little Moss Hey, Liverpool, pleaded guilty at Preston Crown Court to possession with intent to supply Class A drugs.

He was sentenced to two years and six months imprisonment.

Forfeiture orders were made for the cash and mobile phone, and a forfeiture and destruction order was made for the drugs.

An obsessed man who stalked a police officer over two months and repeatedly tried to follow her as she drove home was jailed for 16 weeks.

Jack Jones threatened the female PC while she was on duty and loitered around the police station, on North Church Street, waiting for her to finish her shift.

Lancashire Police said that on several occasions during February and March this year the 21-year-old, accompanied by his friend and co-defendant Thomas Heaton, followed the officer as she walked to her car, parked on Bold Street.

Both men made several attempts to follow her by watching her from their vehicle and even following her in her own car as she drove to her home address.

Jones, 21, of Grange Road, Fleetwood, was sentenced to 16 weeks in prison and issued with a restraining order to protect the officer.

Heaton, 21, of Leven Avenue, Fleetwood, was sentenced to eight weeks imprisonment suspended for 16 weeks. He was also issued with a restraining order.

A man who swung a machete at a shopkeeper in Preston because his card was refused has been jailed for 14 months.

Luke Jenkinson, 25, also racially abused the shopkeeper during the incident in Lancaster Road.

Preston Crown Court heard at around 10pm on February 21, Jenkinson went into the late night newsagents and tried to buy a cigarettes and a can of pop.

But when the shopkeeper noticed the card he was paying with had a woman’s name on it, he asked Jenkinson to enter a PIN number.

Jenkinson shouted, “F***ing P***, I’ll stab you up”, and threw a glass bottle at the shopkeeper.

It smashed on a nearby wall and Jenkinson left the area.

However he returned 15 minutes later with two other men, all wearing balaclavas. Jenkinson was waving a large, black machete.

He swung it towards the abdomen of a customer, and about 15 times towards the shopkeeper - at one time striking his arm and causing a graze.

The shopkeeper and his brother chased the men out of the shop and called the police. Jenkinson was arrested a short time later.

Judge Simon Newell, sentencing, said: “It was perfectly reasonable for the shopkeeper to refuse you service but that seems to have annoyed you.”

The court heard Jenkinson, of Birkdale Drive, Ashton-on-Ribble, has a poor record for violent offences including robbery. His partner is expecting their first child in the coming months, the court heard.

He pleaded guilty to possession of a bladed article in a public place, as well as two burglaries committed at separate premises on the Lockside Office Park in Ashton-on-Ribble on January 20.

A convicted criminal who skipped his sentence hearing and went on the run to Lancashire for two years is now behind bars.

Asif Amin was found to be working in a shop in Blackburn before being caught by Lancashire Constabulary and hauled back to the Crown Court.

The father-of-four was found guilty of possessing criminal property in 2018 and bailed to attend his sentencing hearing.

A trial heard how the 38-year-old had more than £166,000 across two properties in the Cobridge and Hanley areas of Stoke-on-Trent.

However despite turning up to the court building to be sentenced, Amin got cold feet and fled to Blackburn to spend time with his partner and four children.

He has now been jailed for two years and six months for possessing criminal property, and two weeks for skipping bail.

A “brazen” taxidermist was jailed for 56 weeks after he persistently flouted laws over trading in endangered species.

Aaron Halstead, 29, of Burnley, was first investigated and cautioned in 2011 for regulation breaches when he was a student who operated a taxidermy business to fund his education.

Following the caution, he had the benefit of guidance from a police officer with more than 20 years experience in wildlife crime who explained to him the legislation and what was permitted.

But Halstead went on to ignore the advice and was later jailed for 24 weeks in 2015 after he admitted purchasing sperm whale teeth, a cheetah skull and a dolphin skull, and offered to sell a snowy owl without a permit.

He received another term of imprisonment for nine similar breaches of the control of trade in endangered species regulations between September 2017 and January 2018.

Halstead was said by the Crown to have used his legitimate business as “a vehicle for his illicit trading”.

He admitted at an earlier hearing to a string of offences including selling and transporting black rhino horns, acquiring tiger skulls for a commercial purpose, offering a sperm whale tooth and black rhino skull for sale and keeping elephant tusks for sale.

Prosecutor Adrian Farrow told Preston Crown Court: “He was intimately familiar with the legislation and had been provided with specific guidance in relation to it.

“Against that background, the circumstances of the offences for which he now falls to be sentenced can be characterised as deliberate and calculated actions driven by the considerable financial gains which can be made in such trade.”

Outlining the case, Mr Farrow said the defendant reassured a supplier in a WhatsApp conversation he did not need to be “afraid of Customs” in shipping 10 tiger skulls worth 9,000 euros from the Netherlands.

Halstead boasted: “It will be fine … I’ve never had anything stopped.

“Only from out of the EU.”

In another WhatsApp chat Halstead arranged a trip to Calais, France, to sell black rhino horns for 70,000 euros to a “Chinese rich” client after he had removed the horns from a head he had lawfully bought at an auction.

The defendant wrote to an intermediary: “What story are we using if customs ask?

“I will put some other taxidermy in the car and make a false invoice… so it looks like I am delivering them to France.”

Mark Stuart, defending, said Halstead, of Glen View Road, had a “lifelong interest” in taxidermy, sparked by his grandfather’s original interest.

He said: “He should have stopped trading but he did not.

“It was a ridiculous stupid decision to make which he now bitterly regrets.”

He said the defendant’s wife, Heather, who was sitting in court, was “utterly astounded” when she discovered he had been illegally trading again and had told him to close down the taxidermy business, which was dissolved in January 2019.

Halstead was a family man and a qualified swimming instructor who had particularly benefited children with disabilities through his skills, the barrister added.

Sentencing, Judge Robert Altham said: “I am told he is sorry but it is difficult to accept that submission put the way it is.

“He knew what he was doing was wrong.

“He simply chose to the take the risks even though he was on the wrong side of a custodial sentence in 2014.

“This was brazen, persistent, well-organised criminality.

“This is no hapless amateur who has offended by stumbling into an area of legislation he was not aware of.

“Here was a person who acted deliberately in a flagrant and knowing breach of the law, understanding the risks he took and the harm he could cause but was prepared to take those risks for considerable financial rewards.”

He noted that a “most painstaking and careful investigation” was required after Halstead initially denied any wrongdoing following his arrest in January 2018.

A Lancashire man who bit a police officer on the arm during the height of the United Kingdom's coronavirus lockdown was jailed for 10 months.

A 21-year-old female police officer was attacked as she and her colleagues responded to reports of a street disturbance in Rochdale.

Christopher Hill, from Rossendale, had at the time breached coronavirus rules by attempting to visit his partner’s address.

30-year-old Hill lashed out when the officers tried to explain to him that he should not be visiting other people’s homes due to the strict lockdown rules to curb the spread of Covid-19.

The injured officer had to attend hospital following the incident in Drake Street, Rochdale, and was later discharged. She tested negative for coronavirus.

Just days earlier she had been delivering Easter eggs to children while out on patrol.

Following the attack the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, Ian Hopkins, branded Hill as the “lowest of the low”.

He tweeted: “Words fail me when it comes to some people’s behaviour. This is shocking at the best of times, but during a coronavirus pandemic this is just the lowest of the low.

"I trust the CPS and court will now do what we all expect of them."

Hill, of John Street, Waterfoot, was jailed for 10 months after he admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm as well as assaulting two other police officers in a scuffle and criminal damage to a door.

A Blackpool woman who was ‘kept waiting’ for her case to be called on punched a court usher.

Kimberley Walker, 33, has now been jailed for over a year.

She had been waiting around for her case to be called on at Blackpool Magistrates Court when the female usher came to collect her.

As she did so, Walker threw a punch at the woman, hitting her to the right side of the face.

The assault knocked the woman's glasses off and caused some bruising.

Security officers were called to escort her out of the building, yet as they did so, she spat in one of the guards’ faces, Manchester Magistrates Court heard.

After being arrested, Walker, of Blackpool, tried to head butt one police officer, then kicked the other officer in the chest

Walker pleaded guilty to two offences of assaulting an emergency worker, an offence of assault by beating and an offence of common assault.

She was sentenced to a total of 56 weeks imprisonment.

Sentencing her, District Judge Jack McGarva said: “In my experience usher’s are invariably helpful, very overworked and get the brunt of it from people like you.

“It’s not fair.

“Part of my job is to protect them and I’ll certainly do that.”

Sixteen members of an organised crime group were jailed for almost 80 years between them after supplying drugs in Blackpool and exploiting children as drug runners - before bragging about their exploits on YouTube.

The gang members, 13 of which have been sentenced over the past three days, were convicted after making a music video in which they rap about drugs, money and violence.

The video, which was uploaded to YouTube, shows members of the organised crime group using gang hand symbols. It was presented to the judge during this week’s sentencing at Preston Crown Court.

An in-depth cross border operation between Lancashire Constabulary and West Yorkshire Police, named Operation Ullswater, was launched in 2018 to crackdown on the so called ‘SJ’ line, fronted by Ryan Ncube, 21, from Huddersfield.

The operation formed a ‘County Lines’ investigation which focus on organised criminal networks who move illegal drugs around the UK. A series of dawn raids were carried out in both counties leading to 19 members of the gang being charged with various offences in May 2019.

The court heard how the ‘SJ’ line supplied their customers through the use of a mobile phone line, that was used to distribute drugs and cash between Huddersfield and Blackpool, using children as runners.

In total 19 members of the group were convicted of drugs and exploitation offences, 16, of these were sent to prison.

Their sentences are:

Sentenced in February:

A killer HGV driver who “prioritised” checking his Facebook account at the wheel over the safety of other road users was jailed for eight years and 10 months.

James Majury, 33, was said to have effectively “unleashed a 19.2-tonne battering ram with his eyes closed” on the M58 motorway in Lancashire as he opened apps on his mobile phone and sent text messages while driving at speeds up to 56mph.

He accessed the Facebook app less than a minute before his Mercedes Arocs vehicle, heavily laden with scaffolding, ploughed into the back of a nine-seater minibus carrying pupils and staff from Pontville School, a special educational needs facility in Ormskirk.

Majury slammed on his brakes just half a second before hitting the minibus, Preston Crown Court heard.

Joe Cairns, 14, from Radcliffe, Greater Manchester, and school support worker Anne Kerr, 50, from Southport, died from their injuries at the scene in Bickerstaffe, Lancashire, on January 8 last year.

Sentencing Majury, Judge Robert Altham said: “The sad conclusion was this. The defendant did not see the obvious minibus and of course its precious occupants because he prioritised checking his Facebook over the safety of anyone else on the road that day.

“The force of the impact was so great the rear portion of the minibus was completely crushed.

“In a split second, those two lives were lost. These were precious individuals indeed. Their lives and the lives of those close to them have been laid waste by this defendant.”

In February, Majury, of Milton Road, Coppull, Chorley, pleaded guilty to two counts of causing death by dangerous driving and five counts of causing serious injury.

Before the crash at 8.42am, there were warning signs of a lane closure on the approaching exit slip road and there was an obvious build-up of queuing traffic.

Five other people were seriously injured in the multi-vehicle collision close to junction three of the westbound carriageway.

Dash-cam footage from a Ford Transit van, two vehicles in front of Majury’s lorry, which was played in court, showed that the impact was so hard that it mounted the roadside embankment.

The van driver was suffered a fracture of the spine and still endures pain, the court was told.

Majury had opened a number of apps during his journey, including medieval fantasy game Hustle Castle, Sky Sports News and Facebook, as well as responding to text messages from his mother.

He also twice manually unlocked his phone by entering a six-digit pin.

Judge Altham said: “It would seem the phone was in his hand so he could use Facebook when 50 seconds later he struck the minibus.”

James Ageros QC, defending Majury, said: “He wishes to apologise wholeheartedly and unreservedly to all of the families so desperately affected by his appalling actions that day.

“The effect of what he did – for what it’s worth – stays with him every day.”

The court heard that the married father-of-one suffers from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his actions.

In a statement read to the court, Mrs Kerr’s husband, Simon, said: “There are no winners for anybody involved in this. I hope that people will remember this and think about the devastation that has been caused before picking up their phone whilst driving.”

Joe’s mother, Steph Cairns, said Majury’s actions were “so selfish and utterly mindless”, while his father, Andrew, told the court: “They say ‘death by dangerous’ but I say ‘no’ – it’s murder in my eyes.”

Majury will be banned from driving for six years when he is released on licence halfway through his sentence.

A drug addict who burgled 41 homes, including properties in West Lancashire, to feed his £200 a day cocaine habit was jailed for 10 years

Patrick Symes "ransacked" properties across Southport, Ormskirk, Burscough and Merseyside over months in a "despicable" spree.

The 31-year-old ignored valuable electrical items in favour of easily movable cash, jewellery and watches - in many cases treasured and irreplaceable items.

The "prolific" crook took a wedding ring from one woman, which had belonged to her late husband, a ring gifted to a dad by his son, and a gold chain and silver locket one victim inherited from her mum and gran.

He even stole medals from an Army veteran in Litherland who served with the 3rd Battalion Rifles for 24 years, taking medals from tours of duty in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Iraq and Afghanistan, of "great sentimental value".

The dad-of-three had a pattern of targeting homes which were either unoccupied, or appeared to be, in the early evening.

Anthony O'Donohoe, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court how Symes gained entry by smashing rear patio and kitchen windows and doors, using garden tools such as spades and shears, belonging to victims or their neighbours.

Symes targeted homes in Southport, Burscough, Ormskirk, West Derby, Childwall, Crosby, Waterloo, Bootle, Litherland, Formby and Maghull, but didn't always gain entry, and sometimes was disturbed and fled.

In total he stole thousands of pounds worth of gold, platinum and silver wedding and engagement rings, diamond-set pieces, designer watches and family heirlooms.

Detectives working as part of Operation Castle were able to link him by CCTV, glove marks, footprints and his clothing to the "spree", between October 2018 and February 2019.

They also connected him by phone evidence and ANPR data to his driver, Lewis Smith, 30, of Pauline Walk, Fazakerley, who helped him on four raids.

The pair were arrested in Smith's Volkswagen Touareg on February 27 last year, when jewellery from a burglary in Formby was found in the front passenger footwell.

Symes gave a prepared statement in interview, denying any wrongdoing and claiming he found the jewellery in a plastic bag hidden in bushes.

Smith denied participating in any burglaries and said he didn't want to answer any questions about Symes, but both men later admitted conspiracy to commit burglary.

The woman whose husband's ring was stolen was visiting her father-in-law during the burglary, who died that same day, adding to her trauma.

Another victim said her home was "trashed", she felt "absolutely violated" and jewellery stolen included an item left by her late mum.

One victim decided to leave her home of 36 years, while others spent thousands of pounds on CCTV cameras, lights and alarms to feel safer.

A mum who returned home from celebrating her daughter's eighth birthday to find items including her parents' wedding rings gone had to undergo therapy.

She revealed her daughter didn't want to go out to celebrate her ninth birthday, because she feared they would be burgled again.

Symes has 17 previous convictions for 18 offences, including non-dwelling burglaries as a youth in 2005 and 2007, plus theft and possessing drugs.

Smith has 13 previous convictions for 14 offences, including non-dwelling burglaries in 2006 and 2007, minor violence and possessing drugs.

Members of Symes' family gasped in the public gallery as he was jailed for 10 years.

Smith was handed two years and three months behind bars.

An ‘attention seeker’ who tried to kill his mum in a frenzied and brutal knife attack in Blackpool has been sentenced to eight years in prison.

Bartosz Pokorski, 23, stabbed his mother 17 times in the head, face and body at the home they shared in Hornby Road.

During the attack, Pokorski accused his mother of trying to put him in a psychiatric hospital, which she said was not true.

But Preston Crown Court heard he held “a twisted belief that if he [killed her] the world would take notice of him” and here was no evidence to suggest or confirm a psychiatric disorder.

In the days leading up to the attack, Pokorski had been acting strangely, shouting in the street on his way home from the shops.

He had previously suffered depression but had never been violent.

On January 11, he called his mum into his bedroom to look at some photographs.

When she went into his room, he was holding a large kitchen knife and launched the vicious attack on his mother.

He was shouting “just die you bitch, when are you going to bleed to death?” as he stabbed her repeatedly and threw her on the floor.

Mrs Pokorski was so terrified she played dead, in a bid to stop the attack.

She managed to escape when he went to the bathroom but collapsed in the corridor outside the flat.

A neighbour called the police, who found Pokorski outside, covered in blood, saying: “I’ve stabbed someone. Arrest me.”

Mrs Pokorski was found inside the building, so seriously injured the officer at first thought she was dead.

She was taken to hospital, where she remained for a month, after receiving treatment for a punctured left lung and 17 separate stab wounds.

Pokorski pleaded guilty to attempted murder and told police: “I understand I am responsible for the injuries caused to my mother however I do not believe I had legal intent due to my mental health.”

He pleaded guilty to attempted murder and appeared by videolink at Preston Crown Court for sentence.

Handing down an extended sentence of eight years in custody and a five year licence, Judge Robert Altham said he was a dangerous offender who posed a significant risk to the public for a substantial period of time.

A prolific sex offender who poses a 'very real and significant risk of serious harm to teenage boys' has given a 13-year jail sentence.

Joseph Sweeney made contact both in person and online with 22 youngsters aged 13 to 15 immediately after his release from prison in 2019.

The 38-year-old registered sex offender was jailed in 2015 for indecent images offences and breaching a sexual offences prevention order.

He was still on licence when Lancashire Constabulary were alerted to a report that Sweeney had contacted a 15-year-old year old boy online.

He was arrested and initially charged with seven offences including breach of a sexual harm prevention order and engaging in sexual communication with a child.

Following further enquiries Sweeney, formerly of Burnley, was then charged with a further 38 offences, making a total of 45.

The victims were all boys aged between 13 and 15 and the charges included both contact and online offences. In total police identified 22 victims of Sweeney’s offending.

The offences were all committed in the Burnley area during 2019.

Sweeney pleaded guilty to all the offences and was jailed at Preston Crown Court.

He will serve eight years and four months in prison and will be subject to a five year extended licence after being classed as a dangerous offender.

A sex offender who accessed sick child abuse images from her hospital bed has been jailed for nine months.

Julie Marshall, 56, was recovering from a heart attack when she used the hospital wifi to access indecent images of children in August 2017.

The obscene internet use, which included search terms such as “teenagers” and “15 year old model”, alerted the authorities and in April 2018, officers from Lancashire Police executed a search warrant at Marshall’s home in Blackpool.

Two laptops and multiple CDs were seized, containing more than 80,000 indecent images of children.

Marshall, of Warbreck Drive, was arrested and made no comment during her police interview.

However in January 2020 she admitted she had been downloading still and moving footage of children since 2004 and pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images.

Prosecutor Beth Pilling told Preston Crown Court the images crossed all three categories, with 677 being the most serious category A, 455 category B and 79,958 at category C.

The majority related to teenage girls aged around 15 years old.

Judge Simon Newell sentenced Marshall to nine months for the category A images, six months for the category B and four months for category C, to run concurrently.

A man has been jailed after a terrifying knifepoint shop robbery in Burnley.

Police were called at around 11am on March 12 to reports of an incident at a Spar in Manchester Road in the town.

A man stormed the shop armed with a knife.

He then threatened staff, stealing a batch of cigarettes and £100 from the till before making off from the scene.

Employees at the Spar were left "very shaken and upset."

Following police enquiries Matthew Whittaker, 25, of no fixed address, was identified as a suspect and quickly arrested.

He was later charged with robbery and possession of a knife in a public place.

Whittaker pleaded guilty and appeared at Burnley Crown Court where he was sentenced to three years in prison.

A man who breached his sexual harm prevention order by committing an act of voyeurism in a shopping centre toilets has been sent to prison.

After Haben Mihretab’s last voyeurism conviction in 2019, Lancashire Constabulary successfully applied for an indefinite sexual harm prevention order (SHPO), which prohibits him from entering any female public toilets.

Mihretab had previously been made subject to the notification requirements, which meant he had to inform police of any change of address.

On March 7, 2020, Mihretab left his home address in Blackburn to attend a sexual offender treatment programme in Preston city centre.

After completing his first day of attending the course, Mihretab went to the Fishergate Shopping Centre, Preston, and entered the female toilets where he secreted himself and peered over the cubicle, before being spotted by a female victim.

After being identified by the victim, Mihretab was traced by Preston CCTV and British Transport Police into Preston Railway Station and arrested.

Officers attended Mihretab’s home on the same day to conduct an unannounced compliance visit and found he had moved address five days earlier but failed to notify police as he was required to do.

Mihretab was arrested for breaching his notification requirements and SHPO and then further arrested on suspicion of voyeurism after CCTV evidence from the shopping centre was obtained.

Mihretab, 22, of Heatley Close, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to voyeurism, breaching his SHPO and breaching his notification requirement.

He was sentenced to 22 months in custody by a Judge at Preston Crown Court.

A man who sold Class A drugs in Chorley has been jailed for five and a half years after officers found more than £22,000 worth of drugs in his home.

Robert Lloyd, 26, of Waldgrave Road in Liverpool has been sentenced after police found that he had been supplying large quantities of Class A drugs.

On March 25, of this year, Lancashire police officers detained and searched Lloyd while he was at his home on Waldgrave Road, Liverpool.

Lloyd was found in possession of a quantity of heroin and crack cocaine.

Officers also found further amounts of crack cocaine, heroin and cocaine at the 26-year-old's house, along with more than £3,000 in cash, cannabis and drug paraphernalia.

The total street value of the crack cocaine and heroin seized exceeded £22,000.

Further police investigation found that Lloyd was responsible for the supply of drugs within Chorley.

Lloyd appeared at Preston Crown Court and pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply crack cocaine, heroin, cocaine and cannabis.

He was sentenced to five and a half years in prison and a forfeiture order was made for the drugs and cash formerly in his possession.

A heartless conman who fleeced an elderly couple suffering from dementia out of their home and life savings before getting a hair transplant on a luxury spending spree has been ordered to pay back more than £300,000 or face longer in jail.

Syed Bukhari, formerly of Union Road, Oswaldtwistle, targeted an 81-year-old woman and her 80-year-old husband, by posing as a bank worker called ‘Gerry Patel’.

He blew tens of thousands of pounds buying Rolex watches, jewellery, designer clothes, and phones and made six trips to Pakistan and Dubai, travelling first class. On one occasion he spent £11,000 on a stay at a Dubai hotel.

Bukhari, 38, now of no fixed address, was sentenced to seven years and 11 months in September 2018 after pleading guilty to fraud.

He was hauled back to court last week for a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing and ordered to repay £307,759 from the £561,058 he stole or face another three years in jail.

Read the full details and background about his original conviction here.

Two drug dealers have been jailed after a raid at a Burnley garage.

A police officer from the Targeted Crime Team witnessed suspicious activity at the AJ Autosmart in Green Street on January 22, 2020.

The officer had suspicions that several drug users were coming and going from the property.

One of the suspected users was stopped and search, with police recovering a quantity of Class A drugs.

Officers then entered the garage and arrested 33-year-old Aaron McGinty and 35-year-old Michael Hughes on suspicion of supplying Class A drugs.

As police searched inside the premises, they discovered more than £24,000 worth of Crack Cocaine and Heroin along with £9,000 in cash.

Both McGinty and Hughes pleaded guilty to Possession with intent to Supply Class A drugs and have been sentenced to three years and nine months in prison.

Police say the cash has been forfeited and the drugs destroyed.

A Blackpool man who admitted sexual activity with a 15-year-old girl from Warrington has been jailed.

Jack Parker, 32, has been sentenced to more than five years in prison after grooming and convincing his victim they were in a loving relationship.

He began communicating with the teenager in June 2019 via social media and groomed her for six months following.

On Saturday 21 December Parker travelled to the victim’s home and supplied her with a mobile phone so that he could communicate with her without her parents’ knowledge.

He returned to the address the following day and had sexual intercourse with the victim.

A week later, on the evening of Saturday 28 December, Parker collected the girl from her home and took her back to his flat in Blackpool so that the pair could once again engage in sexual activity.

He took her back to Warrington in the early hours of Sunday 29 December, so that she was home before her parents woke up.

Parker arranged to meet the victim again the following weekend.

However, prior to the meeting the victim’s mum found the secret mobile phone and reported it to police.

The phone was analysed by officers, who found numerous inappropriate images and messages linked to Parker.

He was subsequently arrested at his flat in Blackpool, where officers recovered a number of other electronic devices which contained further incriminating evidence.

Parker was also found in possession of a number of letters addressed to the victim and her parents.

In letters to the parents he attempted to explain his actions and even asked for permission to maintain contact with the victim.

He was subsequently charged with a total of 11 offences.

Parker, who was previously known as Adam Carling, pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual activity with a child and also admitted meeting a child after grooming and breach of a previous sexual harm prevention order.

The remaining offences will lie on file.

Parker was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court to a special custodial sentence of nine years and four months, which comprises of a custodial term of five years and four months and an extended licence period of four years.

A Blackburn drug dealer has been jailed after he was caught selling Class A drugs worth £20.

Officers from Lancashire Police's Targeted Crime Team witnessed a suspected drugs transaction on Brunswick Street, Blackburn.

Officers approached the buyer, on which they recovered Class A drugs valued at £20.

The man who dealt the drugs was Blackburn man Zainul Patel, who was arrested shortly after the deal while in his car.

25-year-old Patel was charged and remanded in police custody on suspicion of supplying Class A drugs, specifically crack cocaine and heroin.

Patel, of Bromley Street, Blackburn, has this week pleaded guilty to the offence.

He has been sentenced to four years in prison.

A bungling burglar who stole jewellery worth £12,000 from a Burscough home was locked up after repeatedly leaving blood at crime scenes.

Adam Barnes tried to smash his way into five properties in the space of a few weeks shortly after being released from prison on licence.

Barnes, of Benedict Street, Bootle, stole ‘out of desperation’ after finding himself with no home, money or support when he left jail.

His biggest haul came at a home on Junction Lane, where he left with jewellery worth £12,000 and other goods valued at £3,000.

The traumatised homeowner even lost vital medical equipment in the burglary and was left scared to be in her own home.

Barnes first struck at a house on Hawthorne Avenue, Bootle, where he left the homeowners and their one-year-old daughter terrified as he tried to smash through the porch at 9pm on January 21. Police were called and he was arrested nearby and found to be carrying a kitchen knife and some sweets which had earlier stolen from a nearby shop.

Barnes, 33, was initially released under investigation and went on to carry out a further spree before glass from his clothes was proved to match that from the broken window.

In a victim impact statement read out at court, the mum living at the house said that she had been left too scared to be alone at home and often had to call family round while her partner worked nights.

They have also paid out more than £2,000 for CCTV, burglar alarms and repairs, “money which the family could not really afford at the time”.

One night after the first offence, Barnes used a paving slab to break into his next target.

Prosecuting, Iain Criddle said: “On February 22, the alarm was activated at Hugh Baird College. Entry was gained and damage was caused to two doors and two computers.

“CCTV showed the defendant slamming the door with a paving slab and climbing through the door.

“Damage caused equalled £5,000 and the defendant was linked to this by DNA in blood found at the scene.”

Leaving empty handed, he then moved onto a house on Exeter Road where he attempted to smash his way in but was scared off when neighbours called police.

The homeowner, Christopher Frost, was out when Barnes tried to get in but found blood on his gate and window and was left with a £450 bill for repairs.

The prolific thief, who has 33 previous convictions including four jail terms for burglary, then moved onto the 3 mobile phone shop on Stanley Road.

Mr Criddle said: “The defendant smashed a door with an implement, climbed through and attempted to steal dummy phones but left empty handed.

“He was identified because he again cut himself and left blood at the scene.”

Two days later, Barnes’s spree moved to Burscough as he ransacked the house on Junction Lane to steal cash, antique jewellery, a purse and a tablet computer.

The shocking theft included glucose reading equipment used by the diabetic homeowner. Her jewellery collection included antique items collected over 40 years as well as pieces inherited from her parents and grandparents, while the other items were valued at £3,000.

Blood was left all over the house including the staircase, bannister, walls and carpets and the stolen tablet contained priceless photos from the last 10 years.

Barnes initially denied the burglaries when questioned by police, telling detectives that he was in prison at the time, only to be confronted with the DNA evidence.

Defending, Peter Hunter said Barnes had been left homeless after his release from prison and acted out of desperation. He said Barnes had managed to get his life back on track in the months between the offences and him being charged, finding work and rebuilding a relationship with his estranged parents.

After pleading guilty to four burglaries, two attempted burglaries and possessing an offensive weapon, Barnes was jailed for a total of four years and eight months.

A Chorley man has been jailed for dangerous driving and attempting to pervert the course of justice after fleeing the scene of a crash and lying about it to police.

Scott Churchman, 35, of Eccleston, was given a 26-month sentence and has been banned from driving for 25 months after pleading guilty to the charges at Worcester Crown Court.

On the morning of May 28, 2019, Churchman was driving his vehicle along the A4136 in Herefordshire when he tried to overtake a vehicle, causing a crash.

'Significant damage' was done to his vehicle and an oncoming car, but Churchman fled the scene.

Later the same morning, he contacted Gwent Police by telephone claiming his car had been hit by a lorry in their area.

When interviewed by police he maintained he had travelled down the M6, M50 and A40 and was not on the A4137.

Extensive forensic enquiries carried as part of an investigation by West Mercia Police’s Hereford Operational Policing Unit (OPU), provided the evidence that he had been driving the vehicle on the A4137.

Churchman will have to sit an extended driving test before being allowed back on the road.

A “naive” man who allowed his dad’s house to be used as a base for drug dealers claimed he did not know the extent of their criminal operation.

Police found cannabis worth more than £14,000, along with weighing scales and mobile phones, when they raided the house on Poplar Avenue, Southport.

Callum Halsall, now 26, had given spare keys to the house to associates to use while he regularly stayed at his partner’s house.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that police raided the house in August 2018, at which point Halsall fled in a car.

Prosecuting, Michael Whitty said: “A police search was carried out at the address.

“When officers entered the property, there was a black Mercedes on the driveway which immediately departed at high speed.

“It was unclear at the time who was driving, though it is now acknowledged in the pre-sentence report that the defendant accepts it was him. Police pursued but failed to stop the car.”

During the search, officers found cannabis in multiple rooms, including one bag which contained 855g skunk potentially worth more than £12,000.

The total value of drugs found in the house was almost £15,000 and officers also recovered phones, a knife, scales with traces of cannabis, and a ‘tick list’ used by dealers to list who owes money.

Mr Whitty said: “Officers returned five days later. Mr Halsall was present and was detained and cautioned. Phones and cannabis were taken at that stage.

“In interview, he confirmed the address was his but said he didn’t always reside there and said others also used the property and had keys.

“He said he didn’t have involvement with the cannabis but he may have touched them when moving things.”

Defending, Rachel Oakdene said the Halsall conceded he knew what was happening at the property but “did not know the extent”.

She said: “He is embarrassed and ashamed that he didn’t have the strength of character or willpower to stop people using the property.

“He really regrets the decision he made to effectively let these people exploit his father’s property.”

Ms Oakdene said that Halsall now lives with his partner and child, has quit using cannabis since his arrest, and had been working in a restaurant until the Covid-19 outbreak.

The prosecution offered no evidence for the original charge of possession with intent to supply and Halsall instead pleaded guilty to allowing property to be used for the supply of Class B drugs.

Sentencing, Judge Louise Brandon said Halsall had no previous convictions before this, but had been convicted over three unrelated matters in the intervening two years.

She said: “You must be aware that this is a very serious offence and I am concerned from what I have read that you do not understand that. You have brought drug dealers to the doorsteps of your father’s neighbours.”

Halsall was given a six month suspended sentence and ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid work.

A man who stabbed a father-of-two to death in the stairwell of a block of flats in Lancaster has been jailed for life.

Connor Reece, 25, must serve a minimum of 21 years for the murder of Lee Farrington, before he is eligible for parole.

Friends described Mr Farrington as having “a heart of gold and a head full of dust”.

He died on August 27 after being stabbed in the leg by Connor Reece in a stairwell in Tarnsyke Road, Lancaster.

Preston Crown Court heard 11 days before the attack, Mr Farrington had stepped in to an argument between Reece and Ciaran Currie, who all lived at Oaktree House, a homeless hostel in Lancaster.

On the day of the stabbing, Reece was bearing a “completely misplaced grievance” towards Mr Farrington, believing he had sided with Currie during the earlier squabble, the court heard.

When Reece, along with two other men, met Mr Farrington at the flats, they asked where Mr Currie was and backed Mr Farrington into a corner.

Reece pulled a knife from his sock and stabbed Mr Farrington in the leg, inflicting a 10cm deep wound which severed an artery and chipped his femur.

As Mr Farrington bled out in the corridor, his friend Kadija Omar tried to stem the blood with her jumper while calling for help.

Mr Farrington begged her not to let him die, but the following day he suffered a cardiac arrest and died on the operating table at Royal Preston Hospital.

Judge Robert Altham, sentencing, said Mr Farrington’s death was “as senseless as you can imagine.”

A father and daughter were sentenced after helping to hide murderer Connor Reece from police.

Wayne McCreery, 47, from St Andrews Road, Stretford, Manchester and Danielle McCreery, 28, of no fixed address, were each sentenced at Preston Crown Court to two years and four months in prison for perverting the course of justice.

Detectives launched a murder investigation and established Reece had attended the Tarnsyke Road address in Lancaster. He asked Lee for the whereabouts of another man, before fatally stabbing him in the leg and making off from the scene.

Reece contacted Danielle McCreery, his girlfriend, with both travelling to a hotel in Morecambe. The following day the pair travelled to Manchester, where they were helped to stay by McCreery’s father, Wayne McCreery, while continuing to evade police.

Two dealers who had planned to sell large quantities of ketamine at a Lancashire music festival have been jailed.

James Barr and Jason Jackson, both of Darwen, planned to sell the drug last the 2019 edition of Beat-Herder festival in the Ribble Valley.

Ahead of the festival, police raided their homes and found large quantities of cannabis, ketamine, cocaine and ecstasy tablets.

The two men were charged with several counts of possession with intent to supply, with Barr also being sentenced for an extra charge relating to the counterfeit money found in his home.

Counterfeit money, scales, snap-bags and weapons were also found while examination of mobile phones found saw discussions on how to get drugs past the guards at Beat-Herder.

James Barr, of Gordon Street, Darwen was sentenced to seven years and seven months in prison. Jason Jackson of Marsh House Lane, Darwen was sentenced to five years.

A drug dealer from Blackburn will spend almost three years behind bars.

Mustafa Rhaffiq, 22, of Cherry Street on Audley Range in Blackburn, has been jailed after police were able to link him to a haul of crack cocaine and heroin.

On June 24, 2019, Lancashire Constabulary officers stopped Rhaffiq while he was riding in the front passenger seat of a vehicle.

The vehicle in question had been seen in suspicious circumstances with suspected drug users in the past.

The 22-year-old was searched and was found to be in possession of several street deals of crack cocaine and heroin.

He was then arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply Class A drugs. He also had a small amount of money and a mobile phone with him.

Following the arrest, police searched an address linked to Rhaffiq which led to the recovery of more Class A drugs.

In total the drugs recovered were valued at nearly £4,000.

Rhaffiq pleaded guilty to the charges at Preston Crown Court and was sentenced to two years and nine months.

A drink-driver from Blackburn who ploughed into another vehicle, killing his friend, has been jailed for five years.

Police found whisky bottles in the cab of the van driven by Sukhdeep Gill, 36, who “dozed off” after drinking alcohol while behind the wheel, Chester Crown Court heard.

His Mercedes Sprinter drifted across white lines while doing 70mph and ploughed into another stationary van which had stopped on the hard shoulder of the M6 motorway in Cheshire.

Gill’s friend, Junaid Akhtar, 37, who was in the passenger seat, suffered serious injuries.

The father-of-three, from Blackburn, died in hospital seven days later.

The driver of the other van, a man from the Sheffield area, suffered whiplash and a broken collarbone.

Police called to the scene noticed that Gill smelled strongly of alcohol and found two small whisky bottles and an empty can of lager in the footwell of the van.

A breath test showed a reading of 85 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath – more than twice the legal limit of 35 microgrammes.

Gill, of Beardwood Brow, Blackburn, had been working as a delivery driver, picking his van up in Preston before making deliveries in the Midlands, and was driving back north on the M6 near Knutsford in Cheshire when he crashed on the evening of August 21 2018.

He pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to causing death by careless driving while under the influence of excess alcohol.

A drunk driver who killed 'kind and caring' Kristian Johnson after failing to see him standing in the middle of a road has been jailed.

Preston Crown Court heard how Emily Rogers had been drinking alcohol at the Rose N Bowl in Stacksteads and later at the Waterloo Pub in Bacup when 'she succumbed to peer pressure' to take a friend back to Rawtenstall.

Charity worker and volunteer dance teacher Rogers, who had drunk two pints of lager and two bottles of beer, got behind the wheel of her Suzuki Alto and was travelling along Market Street in Bacup when she struck Mr Johnson, 24.

Prosecutor Frances McEntee said Rogers was "oblivious to the presence of Mr Johnson" in the middle of the carriageway and only applied the brakes after the collision.

The court heard that Mr Johnson suffered "fatal head injuries" following the collision at 1.06am on June 17 last year and was pronounced dead at the scene at 1.44am.

In a powerful and heartbreaking victim impact statement, Mr Johnson's mum Paula said she has been left 'devastated and numb' by her 'baby's' death.

She told the court how her husband had died suddenly in 2009 and Kristian's death happened just hours after they had celebrated his life on Fathers Day (June 16).

Mr McEntee said the defendant was "substantially more than twice over the legal limit for alcohol" after providing a reading of 183mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood. The legal limit is 80mg.

He told the court that Rogers was "offering something of a taxi service when clearly she shouldn't have been behind the wheel".

A “callous” prisoner who sent letters threatening to kill Boris Johnson and his girlfriend and car-bomb female Labour MPs has been jailed for five years.

Muslim convert Rakeem Malik posted the threat to the Prime Minister from his jail cell just days after being charged over what a judge called “repugnant” notes mailed to Theresa May and two other female MPs.

Other correspondence sent by Malik, who is in poor health and a double leg amputee, threatened to kill and rape Labour MPs Rosie Cooper and Jess Phillips, Birmingham Crown Court heard.

Ms Phillips and Ms Cooper both joined a court hearing over Skype to hear Malik being jailed by Judge Samantha Crabb, who described the serving prisoner as “callous, calculating and unemotional”.

The judge concluded he was a “dangerous offender” and imposed an extended period of licence on Malik – who is already serving a life sentence.

“Your offending did involve significant planning, carefully selecting numerous victims at particular times chosen to maximise impact of your letters,” added Judge Crabb.

She told Malik, who appeared in the court dock in a wheelchair with his head leaning on one fist throughout, that he had shown a “blatant intention to cause maximum harm”.

The judge added: “The prospect of being detected deterred you not one bit.”

A Lancashire drugs gang have been jailed for nearly 20 years for their role in a £250,000 drugs conspiracy.

Nathan James Walker, Jacob Fisher, Thomas Ian Edwards, Connor Coulburn and Naomi Winter were convicted after helping to flood the streets of Accrington with heroin and crack cocaine.

The conspiracy was carried out between November 2018 and May 2019, a court heard.

All five defendants pleaded guilty at Preston Crown Court to conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine and were sentenced by Judge Simon Medland QC.

Walker, 29, of Milnshaw Lane, Accrington, also admitted three offences of burglary and jailed for a total of four years.

Fisher, 21, of James Avenue, Great Harwood, was jailed for 42 months

Edwards, 23, of Dickens Road, Chorley, and Coulburn, 25, of Dale Street, Bacup, were both jailed for four years.

Winter, 29, of Thurston, Skelmersdale, also pleaded guilty to smuggling drugs into Channings Wood prison in Devon. She was jailed for a total of three years and 10 months.

A 17-year-old boy from Accrington, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was given a three-year youth referral order and 150 hours unpaid work.

Matthew Hefford was jailed for possessing crack cocaine and heroin with intent to supply in Burnley.

Officers from the Targeted Crime Team arrested the 33-year-old on March 5.

Hefford, of Thorn Street, was found with several individual street deals of Class A drugs, cash and two mobile phones.

A search of his home address also uncovered more drugs hidden in a cereal box.

He pleaded guilty to the charges at Preston Crown Court and was this week sentenced to 32 months in prison.

Mohammed Jamil Khan was also jailed for possession of numerous wraps of crack cocaine and heroin with intent to supply.

The 25-year-old, of Windermere Avenue, Blackburn, was stopped on Preston New Road by the Targeted Crime Team on April 23.

They found him in possession of Class A drugs and a mobile phone.

He was arrested and later charged with possession with intent to supply crack cocaine and heroin.

Khan pleaded guilty at his first opportunity at Preston Crown Court and was this week sentenced to 28 months in prison.

A paedophile who committed a number of historical sex offences against two girls in Blackpool 'to satisfy his own depraved sexual desires' has been jailed for 11 years.

Richard McAdam, of Rixton Grove, Thornton, was arrested in August 2017 after Lancashire Police received a complaint from a victim who alleged she had been raped by the 60-year-old in 2001, when she was 12.

Another victim was identified by police and reported that she had been indecently assaulted as a child by McAdam between 1995 and 2000.

Officers launched an investigation with McAdam denying the offences at court.

Following a trial in December he was convicted of 20 sexual offences, including four offences of sexual assault, four offences of rape, two offences of assaulting a child by penetration and ten offences of sexual activity with a child.

McAdam was sentenced at Preston Crown Court and jailed for 11 years.

A man has been jailed for manslaughter and arson after pensioner found dead at the scene of a house fire.

Carl Salt, 45, of Burnley Road, Colne, was handed an extended determinate sentence of 14 years at Preston Crown Court.

Around 12.05am on July 30 last year a police officer driving on Burnley Road saw a house on fire and an injured man outside.

The fire service attended and found 74-year-old John Hodge dead inside the property.

Police said a 56-year-old man found outside the house was taken to Royal Blackburn Hospital suffering from burns and smoke inhalation. He later recovered from his injuries.

Following initial enquiries, a third man, Salt, was traced and arrested on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life and murder.

Detectives established he shared the property with the other two men and had told a care worker he was going to set fire to the house.

Salt was later charged with manslaughter and arson being reckless as to endanger life.

He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, with a further four years on licence, for Mr Hodge’s manslaughter. The sentence for arson will run concurrently.

A dad-of-two was found slumped at the wheel with hundreds of pounds worth of Class A drugs.

Shaun Esterhuizen, of Promenade in Southport, was found with cocaine, heroin and £150 cash when police spotted him asleep in his car.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that the 40-year-old began dealing to fund his own drug habit as his life hit a “downward spiral”.

Prosecuting, Charlotte Atherton said: “Police found the defendant asleep in his car on a residential street with the engine running.

“He was obviously under the influence of drugs.

“When he stepped out of the car, officers noticed he was hiding something in his left hand.”

Searches of Esterhuizen and his car uncovered 25 wraps of cocaine worth approximately £245, as well as loose cocaine powder and crack cocaine stones.

A phone was also found inside the car and was found to have messages linked to the purchase and supply of drugs.

One message contained a photo of drugs, weighing scales and other related equipment and read: “Started up here in business. Just doing some weighing and bagging. I’m gonna stay here for a while.”

Ms Atherton described the South Africa-born man as a street dealer and a drug user.

Esterhuizen pleaded guilty to possession of heroin and cocaine with intent to supply and was sentenced to 27 months.

A thug out on licence for plunging a knife into a man's back was caught stashing 22 wraps of cannabis in his underwear.

Thomas Rigby, from Southport, was handed an eight year prison term in 2014 and was automatically released at the half way point under licence conditions.

But on 21 January 2019, police investigating a car chase burst into a property in Southport and found Rigby in bed.

Liverpool Crown Court heard Rigby, 26, had been found with a total of 25 wraps of cannabis, snap bags and weighing scales - but claimed the drugs were for his own personal consumption.

However after a trial at Liverpool Magistrates' Court he was found guilty of possession with intent to supply and committed to the crown court for sentence, although he was cleared of assaulting a police officer.

The court heard Rigby had been recalled to prison on licence with a release date in August 2022.

Judge Brian Cummings, QC, sentenced Rigby to 18 months in prison, and the court heard Rigby would be unable to apply for early parole until the half way point of his new sentence.

A stranger "intimately kissed" a 12-year-old girl in McDonals's before taking her to a hostel and molesting her.

Darren Jones-Bond, 33, from Southport, spotted the child sitting alone on a bench near St John's Precinct, in Liverpool city centre.

He took her to the restaurant, then to a room where he gave her alcohol, forced her onto a bed before subjecting her to abuse.

However, an Uber delivery driver - who initially thought the girl must be Jones-Bond's daughter - overheard the pervert in McDonald's.

Police were alerted and attended the hostel, where they found the girl on a bed, with her top on back to front and trousers unzipped.

Aggressive Jones-Bond was arrested but brazenly claimed the girl had told him she was 24, Liverpool Crown Court heard.

The twisted father, of Leyland Road, - who has a daughter of his own - targeted his victim on Tuesday, February 11 this year.

The Uber driver saw the girl walk up to him at the restaurant in Blundell Street, in the Baltic Triangle, at around 11.30pm.

A man was jailed for a year after spitting at police officers, claiming he has coronavirus.

Police were called to a report of a disturbance on Cog Lane in Burnley in the early hours of March 28.

At the scene, they arrested Callum Heaton, 23, for being drunk and disorderly.

However, during the arrest Heaton spat at two officers claiming he was infected with COVID-19. He continued to do so while he was taken to custody.

Heaton appeared before Burnley Magistrates’ Court and pleaded guilty to two counts of assault on an emergency worker and one of criminal damage.

He was jailed for a total of 12 months.

A man was jailed for a six months after spitting at police officers, claiming he has coronavirus and hoping they died.

Police were called reports of an altercation close to Jemmet Street at around 5.45pm on Wednesday (May 20).

Lee Howell was arrested on suspicion of assault and became aggressive, calling police ‘rats’.

As the 31-year-old was put in a police van, he spat in the face of an officer and was restrained.

He then claimed he had Covid-19 and he hoped officers died, all of their families died and the officers never saw them again.

Howell then continued to abuse officers, chanting ‘Corona’ while in custody.

He was charged with assault by beating of an emergency worker and appeared at Preston Magistrates’ Court where he pleaded guilty.

He was sentenced to 26 weeks in prison and ordered to pay a £128 surcharge.

Simon Cooper from Lancaster was jailed after coughing on people and telling them they would die.

He was in the process of stealing wine from a shop on March 26 when he deliberately coughed on members of staff and told them that they would die as a result.

Later, he would attempt to steal from a delivery van and then threaten to cough on a police officer who arrested him.

He appeared at Preston Magistrates' Court and was there sentenced to 42 weeks in prison.

A man has been jailed after coughing in a police officers face while claiming to have coronavirus.

Christopher Plumb, 54, of no fixed address, was arrested on May 2 after a domestic incident at an address on Cross Street in Blackpool.

Following his arrest, and while in custody, Plumb deliberately coughed in the face of a PC while saying he was infected with Covid-19.

Plumb appeared before Blackpool Magistrates and admitted offences of assault by beating, criminal damage and assault on an emergency worker.

He was jailed for a total of 26 weeks and given a restraining order.

Patrick Ryan, the UK's most convicted man, is back behind bars after committing his 669th crime.

He has become infamous for enjoying meals in restaurants - particularly curry houses - before admitting to staff he did not have any money to pay for them.

The eat-and-run villain, from Accrington, earned the nickname 'rogue'n'tosh' he did it that much, with his criminal record so long it fills out 100 pages.

Officers have also to avoid printing out his criminal history because of the amount of paper it wastes, with his total cost to the public totalling more than £3 million.

Preston Magistrates' Court heard how his latest crime concerned breaching post-sentence supervision by failing to attend scheduled appointments regarding probation.

JPs at the courthouse heard how 64-year-old Ryan was jailed for 18 months in 2018 after he drunkenly exposed himself to a bus-load of passengers, urinating and groping a woman's breasts.

He was told he would serve nine months before being released under supervision.

But the court heard he failed to register an address with officers as required under the conditions of being released from prison. He had also flouted his supervision rules.

A probation officer wrote in a pre-sentence report he had 'never seen a record like' Ryan’s.

Magistrates jailed him for 16 weeks after hearing he had a flagrant disregard for court orders.

They said the offence was aggravated by his record which stretches back 50 years and includes prison spells for theft, dishonesty and sexual assault.

Warren Manghan was jailed for his role in a 'Breaking Bad style' drugs gang which was kitted out to cook amphetamine in rural Lancashire and Manchester.

Officers from the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit executed a warrant at Victoria Mill, Earby, in June 2018. They discovered an industrial scale amphetamine laboratory, linked to an organised crime group from across the north of England.

The factory was equipped with tens of thousands of pounds worth of equipment, including a large reactor vessel, capable of producing 100 litres of amphetamine per batch.

Footage released by police highlighted the measures adopted by officers and firefighters called in to inspect a lab discovered in the Lancashire village of Earby.

The chemicals were so volatile police had to break in to the site rather than break through the doors due to concerns over what may have greeted them.

A number of gang members were linked to this unit, as well as an address in Grenville Terrace, Ashton-Under-Lyne, from which cocaine and amphetamine were stored and distributed.

A search warrant was carried out at Grenville Terrace, leading to the discovery of a second amphetamine laboratory.

In July 2019, 10 men and one woman were sentenced to a total of 61 years and nine months in prison following two linked operations into the large-scale production of amphetamines.

Mangan, 36, of no fixed abode, was jailed for two years for conspiracy to supply amphetamine.

Craig Slee sparked a bomb scare outside Blackburn Town Hall after claiming he was just organising a rave has been jailed for three years.

He left items on two benches outside the Town Hall on King William Street on May 3 which sparked a major alert.

Army bomb disposal experts were called in and nearby buildings were evacuated. Part of the town centre was also cordoned off for three hours.

The items included an open lap top with a mobile phone attached to its screen with tape, a taped up record box with ISIS written on the front and strapped to the case.

Slee, 50, watched the drama unfold from a nearway doorway, but did not present himself to officials.

He later claimed he was part of the Spiral Tribe rave collective and was raising awareness of terror attacks in New Zealand and Sri Lanka by recording a music video.

Army bomb disposal experts took the items to Greenbank Police Station where they scanned them to make sure they did not contain explosives.

Slee was also taken to the police station, where he told officers he was a member of Spiral Tribe and had a list of questions to ask the public.

He said he had intended to strap a Technics turntable to the wheelchair, but it was too heavy and he was waiting for a friend to come along with a bluetooth speaker.

The devices were seized and examined and found to be not viable.

Slee, of Logwood Street, Blackburn, denied placing an article with intent to give appearances of an explosive device on a bench next to Blackburn Town Hall.

However the jury at Preston Crown Court took just 35 minutes to dismiss his claims and find him guilty of the offence.

He was sentenced to three years imprisonment and given a five-year restraining order banning him from entering a designated area of Blackburn Town Centre.

Prolific criminal Scott McKay became trapped in a pharmacy after taking a large amount of drugs and then called 999 for help.

Police were called by the defendant to Geloo Pharmacy in Blackburn at around 2am on Wednesday, April 15.

The 43-year-old had used a wooden plank to prise open the metal bars and once inside stole around 300 Diazepam tablets.

Paramedics and firefighters were called to the scene to help rescue and treat the 'extremely inebriated' defendant.

McKay, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty at Blackburn Magistrates Court to burglary.

He was jailed for a total of 26 weeks.

Thomas Ingram is a serial fraudster who scammed £40,000 from nine train companies through delay compensation schemes.

The 34-year-old, from Blackpool, produced and printed hundreds of fake tickets and then submitted hundreds of claims nationwide using more than 40 aliases and false addresses.

The reimbursements for rail journeys he never made allowed him to fund multiple trips to Las Vegas, British Transport Police (BTP) said.

Ingram, of Fairfield Road, targeted rail firms from 2013 to 2018 before its financial investigators managed to trace the fraudulent payouts that were either transferred into his four personal bank accounts or alias PayPal accounts, BTP officials added.

He firstly targeted the chargeback method to pay for rail travel using an account that contained no cash and then in 2016 he turned to using the delay repay compensation scheme.

He was arrested and a search of his home found £7,300 in cash, along with a number of printers, laptops and other items used in the commission of the offences.

Ingram was sentenced to two years imprisonment at Preston Crown Court after he pleaded guilty to nine counts of fraud.

Two men were jailed for breaching a gang injunction by associating with each other despite being banned.

Joel Dowling, 23, of no fixed abode and Steven Grimes, 22, of Danbers, Upholland, had been handed a gang injunction in November.

The injunction banned them from communicating after they were convicted for affray offences, committed in Skelmersdale in September.

However, after their release from prison, police discovered both men had remained in contact and were seen together in the Skelmersdale area.

Dowling had also failed to tell police of his new address.

They were both arrested and returned to court.

Appearing at Liverpool County Court, Grimes was sentenced to 52 days in prison and Dowling handed a 42 day sentence, suspended for 12 months. However, he was returned to prison after his prison licence was revoked.

The injunction will still be in place when Grimes and Dowling are released from prison, with restrictions in place preventing the men engaging in any abusive, threatening or intimidating conduct, threatening to use or encouraging others to use violence.

The restrictions will also prevent them from congregating in a public place in a group of two or more people.

A rapist who threatened to kill his victim was sent to prison for 11 years.

Mohammed Shafiq, 41, of Higher Antley Street, Accrington, denied rape and other associated charges but was convicted after a trial earlier this year.

The jury found Shafiq guilty of rape, making threats to kill, sexual assault and assault occasioning actual bodily harm following the trial at Burnley Crown Court.

Judge Sara Dodd sentenced him to 11 years in jail for the offences.

Following the sentencing hearing, Sgt Kirsty Stoddard, who led the investigation, said: “I am pleased with the sentence and it sends a clear message that Lancashire Constabulary and the courts will not tolerate this despicable behaviour.

“I would like to praise the victim in this case for the bravery she displayed first of all in coming forward and then while giving evidence in the trial.

“I would encourage anyone who has been a victim of sexual violence to come forward with the confidence that we will investigate with sensitivity and professionalism.”

Two brothers were jailed for life in December after killing a Blackburn father-of-eight.

Andrew Tait, 22, and George Preshur, 30, laughed and smirked in the dock as Mr Justice Freedman told them they might never be released from prison.

Steven Thurston, 50, was bludgeoned to death with wooden fence posts at his home in Sussex Drive, Blackburn, on June 9, 2019.

The half-brothers believed their mum had been spiked by drugs given to her by Mr Thurston and were eager to seek revenge.

Read the full story story here.

The Khan brothers and cousin were responsible for supplying East Lancashire with crack-cocaine, cannabis and heroin.

Brothers Zeeshan and Adnan Khan and their cousin Hamza Khan, all from Burnley, were put behind bars for more than seven years in April last year.

They exploited a number of vulnerable youngsters to run the drugs as part of the ‘Tigerline’ conspiracy.

Tigerline was the name given by the group to the mobile phone line they used to carry out their deals.

Lancashire Constabulary ran an 18-month long investigation codename ‘Nepal’ from May 2017 to October 2018 during which they carried out stop searches and drugs warrants, recovering substantial amounts of Class A and B drugs and cash.

Two Blackpool brothers posed as police cadets and tried to get con OAPs into giving them money.

Anthony Emery, 22, and Ryan Sutherland, 24, wore their younger brother’s cadet uniform to go door to door with sponsor forms in the Garstang Road area of the town in January last year.

But the pair, who were also armed with clipboards, were caught out when a police officer spotted Emery and became suspicious.

Wearing a navy blue cadet fleece, Emery claimed he was waiting for a lift back to the Grange Park area, but when Sutherland arrived, dressed in a hi-viz cadet jacket, officers investigated further.

The pair had visited a number of homes on the street, cheating householders out of small sums totalling between £50 and £60.

A cocaine-fuelled burglar stole a £33,000 BMW from the drive of a house in Fulwood and sold it on for £100.

Jamie Rawling-O’Grady, 29, broke into six homes, stole four cars and damaged property in a week-long crime spree in May last year.

One householder was horrified to discover a machete, hand ties and a baseball bat in her VW Polo when she went to collect it from a few streets away from her home in Winmarleigh Road, where it had been abandoned.

She said she feared they could have been used on her family or other victims when Rawling-O’Grady crept into her home at night.

Another VW Polo, which was stolen from Banbury Drive, was found with a black jacket and gloves in the back, after the householder spotted it being taken from the drive.

The owner chased after Rawling-O’Grady - who dumped the car and fled on a bike he had picked up from a nearby garden.

Between May 23 and May 27, the burglar broke into homes in Winmarleigh Road, Banbury Drive, Shire Bank Crescent and Sharoe Green Lane, through unsecured doors and windows.

He stole iPads, a PS4, Nike trainers, car keys and alcohol.

But he was caught out when footprints found at the scene were matched to his and he was arrested on August 22.

When the police interviewed him, Rawling-O’Grady admitted he had burgled the houses to fund his addiction to cocaine.

He said he had been working since he was last released from prison but had lost his job due to train strikes and had fallen back into his old ways.

Selling the £33k BMW for £100 showed the depths he had fallen to, he told officers.

Rawling-O’Grady, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to burglary, theft of a motor vehicle and criminal damage.

He was jailed for 44 months.

A violent husband who punched, kicked and strangled his wife after a 24 hour long drinking session has been jailed for 22 months.

John Coates, 40, had been in the pub where his wife worked, complaining and criticising her.

At one point another customer punched him 'for speaking to her like rubbish' but when his wife tried to call an ambulance, Coates refused.

The couple carried on drinking after closing time and left the pub at around 6am.

But when they returned to their home in Bold Street, Fleetwood, Coates called his wife 'a fat slag' and punched her to the head.

Coates’ wife screamed as he punched her three or four times to the head, knocking her to the ground.

She tried to fight back, but her husband kicked her repeatedly to her ribs and stomach area.

When she did manage to get up, she fell down a step into the bedroom, where Coates pinned her to the bed and strangled her, digging his nails into her neck.

Police arrived at the house at 7am to find Mrs Coates on the floor in the bedroom, clearly in pain.

She had lumps on her head, marks on her neck, and bruises were beginning to develop around her right side.

Coates was arrested and said he had been drinking due to family problems, but claimed to have no recollection of the attack on his wife.

Preston Crown Court heard the couple had been together for four years and married for two.

In a letter to the court, Coates’ wife said: “He is a good person. It was a bad time and everything was built up inside him. He is my husband and I am willing to work with him.”

Coates defence lawyer told the court he is appalled at how he treated his wife on January 31 and accepts he needs to work on his alcohol misuse and possessive behaviour.

He pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH).

A serial conman tricked his way into the homes of six OAPs in Blackburn to steal cash and sentimental jewellery.

One of Christopher McKillop’s victims, 80, said she was ‘half dead’ after learning the man she took pity on had stolen her jewellery after she had let him into her home and made him coffee.

McKillop, 39, has been jailed for five years after pleading guilty to four burglaries, an attempted burglary and a theft at houses in Parkinson Street, Audley Street, Saunders Road, Exeter Street, Rockcliffe Street and Audley Lane.

In October 2019, the fraudster knocked on several doors in the area, claiming he had run out of petrol and needed to call his mother.

At two of the houses he spoke to a woman on the phone, which Preston Crown Court heard gave an air of legitimacy to his tale.

Some of his victims, who were aged between 64 and 90, made him drinks and allowed him to use the toilet.

Recorder Mary Prior QC, sentencing, said: “You deliberately targeted vulnerable victims.”

One woman, in her 60s, who suffers mental health problems, said she was left feeling frightened and unable to sleep, after McKillop stole her iPhone from the sofa.

She said she had been set back in her recovery and was unable to trust men since the burglary on October 22.

At one house, the 74-year-old’s daughter told McKillop her mother suffered memory problems and dementia after she took pity on him and handed over £20.

When the daughter had left, McKillop returned and stole a St Christopher, which was later found at his flat.

Preston Crown Court heard McKillop, of Bolton Road, Blackburn, has learning difficulties and had experienced a number of personal problems - including homelessness - in the period leading up to the offences.

He has previous convictions for distraction burglaries, using the same tricks, dating back to 2005.

In 2017 he was jailed for 12 months after using conning 12 elderly people, including an 80-year-old man, who lost £3,000.

A Lancaster man who told a traffic warden to "get a proper job" before assaulting him and repeatedly threatening and intimidating him over a three-month period has been jailed.

Jordan Fox first approached victim Austin Dibble on North Road in the city centre on October 22 and started swearing at him despite the defendant receiving no parking ticket, a court heard.

When Mr Dibble told Fox there was no need for the abuse he accused the traffic warden of 'being cheeky' and followed him down the road.

Fox shouted "why don't you get a proper job" before telling the victim "wait until we get past the camera, I'll drop you".

Prosecutor David Clarke told Preston Crown Court that when Mr Dibble reached Chapel Street the defendant 'launched at him' and he felt a 'heavy impact to the side of his face'.

Mr Dibble fell to the ground and suffered a 'slight concussion', scratches and swelling to his forehead.

The court heard that Fox was arrested on November 1 and positively identified by Mr Dibble on a video identification parade.

Fox then came across the victim in a 'first chance encounter' on December 21.

Mr Dibble was working at a car park around 3pm when he heard a man shout "grass".

When he turned around he saw Fox and other young men on bikes.

Mr Clarke said they 'pedalled fast at him and nearly hit him' before they all circled around him on their bikes shouting "grass".

The court heard that Fox boasted he would not go to prison and threatened to "knock out" Mr Dibble again "as it only took one punch last time".

The victim fled to St Nicholas Arcades but the group reappeared and approached him again on their bikes with Fox saying "you better run you f***ing grass".

In a second 'chance encounter' on February 6, Mr Dibble was working at a car park on Chapel Street when he heard Fox sarcastically laugh and say "you think I'm going to prison?"

Fox then said: "You better sling it or I will knock you out again you sausage roll".

Fox, 21, of Lancaster, pleaded guilty at an earlier Preston Magistrates Court hearing to assault and two counts of witness intimidation.

The court heard that he has nine convictions for 22 offences.

Recorder Mary Prior QC sentenced Fox to 20 months in prison and imposed a five-year restraining order.

An inmate escaped from an open prison by running across a field and climbing a fence before fleeing in a waiting getaway car.

Steven Flynn was 'at large' for over three months before handing himself into police following a wanted appeal, a court heard.

The 32-year-old had been serving a prison sentence for 'serious drug offences' and was transferred to HMP Kirkham in October 2019.

Preston Crown Court heard that he was 'assessed as somebody who could be trusted in an open prison' but within weeks of arrival had plotted his escape.

Prosecutor Mercedes Jabbari said the defendant had made a 'prearranged meeting' using the prison phone and escaped from HMP Kirkham on November 5.

She said: "On the day in question he had run over a field and climbed a fence. A prison officer had seen him and pressed the alarm.

"He had made a prearranged meeting with a man he knew by using the prison phone and got a lift with that person to Hull.

"He stayed in Hull for a few months before making his way back to this side of the country.

"He indicated that the person he stayed with had no knowledge of the fact he was wanted by the police."

Flynn voluntarily handed himself in at Wigan police station on February 10 and admitted the offences.

Ms Jabbari said: "In the course of his interview he blamed not only mental health issues but the fact that another inmate had threatened him and had previously assaulted him."

Flynn, appearing at court via video link from HMP Forest Bank, pleaded guilty to escaping from lawful custody and was jailed for six months.

A 'manipulative' bully has been jailed for revenge porn offences after sending sexual images of his victim to her family and friends.

Shazaib Shafqat, from Burnley, had bombarded the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, with up to 200 calls and text messages a day.

She repeatedly ignored him and also alerted police who warned him to 'stay away from her or he would be arrested', a court heard.

Three months later the 20-year-old started messaging her again saying: "You f***ing silly smelly b*tch. Don't make me f***ing end your life.

"You think I ain't got the balls anymore to do whatever if I want? I'm telling you.

"Push my buttons a little. You will see what I'm fully capable of. You and your family are going to go through hell".

Preston Crown Court heard how Shafqat then tried to track down where the victim was living and told a friend "just get her to ring me".

When the victim checked her old phone she found more than 30 text messages from the defendant.

One read: "You've got an hour to respond or your full nudes are out. Watch me f**k your mum and dad up now. You are f***ed up fully. You're dead."

When she didn't respond her friend received an explicit photo of the victim with the message "You think I've only got one? I've got more".

The friend replied stating she was 'shocked' and begged Shafqat not to send the photograph to anyone else.

However the defendant, a former Clitheroe Sixth Form College student, then shared two other explicit images and a video clip of the victim.

In a further message he said: "Plenty, plenty more. Send them around. All these to her aunts and uncles, everyone. Five minutes to call. All them pics. Gonna get sent to them all. Let them enjoy the slut life."

Prosecutor Karen Brooks said Shafqat then set up a WhatsApp group in the victim's name and included some members of her family.

He uploaded images of her which were 'sexual in nature' and also threatened to send them to more people she knew.

When Shafqat was arrested and interviewed he made no comment to police.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, she described feeling 'incredibly embarrassed' and that it has had a 'crushing and lasting impact upon her relationships' with family and friends.

Shafqat, now of Saxony Road, Liverpool, pleaded guilty to disclosing sexual photographs and putting a person in fear of violence by harassment.

He was jailed for 24 months and given a five-year restraining order.

A woman who breached a restraining order against her ex, who she threatened to kill, has been jailed.

Joanna Moffat, Coote Lane, Lostock Hall, was sentenced to 34 months in prison at Preston Crown Court.

In August 2016, Moffat, 33, was handed a five-year restraining order and jailed for six months after being convicted of harassing a former partner.

Just over a year later, in September 2017 Moffat was again jailed for harassing the same former partner.

Despite receiving custodial sentences for her actions, she began abusing her ex-partner for a third time in June last year while on holiday in Majorca.

The abuse, from a number of fake Facebook profiles used to hide her identity, included threats to kill and messages about the death of her former partner’s mother.

The victim contacted police and following extensive enquiries, including support from UK Border Force and Interpol, Moffat was identified as a suspect and arrested in September.

While in custody Moffat attacked a custody detention officer, pushing her over.

Moffat was charged and initially pleaded not guilty, but later admitted breaching a restraining order and was sentenced to 34 months in prison.

She was also handed an indefinite restraining order against the victim and her family.

A carer who stole almost a quarter of a million pounds from a frail 93-year-old Southport woman splashed the cash buying her daughter a new car.

When police finally caught up with Christine Barber and she opened the door to them she said: “It’s to do with that bloody woman, isn’t it?”

Liverpool Crown Court heard that Barber “bled her almost dry” by obtaining her bank details and emptying her accounts of £222,742, leaving her virtually destitute.

The court was told she had known the victim since she was a child and their paths crossed again when Barber’s duties as a carer coincidentally involved her visiting the pensioner at her home in Bootle.

Liverpool Crown Court was told offences happened after Barber had stopped working as her victim's carer.

She visited her on at least 10 occasions and carried on doing so even after she had left her job and the firm, Warren Care, told her to stop.

The pensioner eventually moved into Locharwoods care home in Birkdale, Southport, and Barber’s six month spending spree came to light after it became feared that the unsuspecting victim might be unable to pay the fees, said Simon Duncan, prosecuting.

The 57-year-old defendant, who even opened a mobile banking account to access the pensioner’s current account, repeatedly took out large sums from her victim’s three savings accounts.

As well as paying fees for Bangor University she bought her daughter a £9,000 Renault Clio car.

She told her two children in text messages that “a wealthy old lady had given her the money as she did not want her grand-daughter to have it. She had two houses and wanted to give it to charity.”

Mr Duncan said that as well as the secretly setting up the mobile banking app she had also obtained a new M&S card and pin in the victim’s name.

In addition to transferring large withdrawals, some as much as £20,000, into her own account, she used the woman’s current account for small purchases and to access ATMs.

She also made donations to a cat charity totalling £4,330.

Jailing Barber for two years, Judge David Aubrey QC, said that the victim, who has since died, had been “in the autumn of her life, was elderly and vulnerable."

An angry Blackpool man who fractured a cancer sufferers arm after 'stamping' on it in a row over noise in an alleyway has been jailed.

Victim Daniel Monk and his partner Amanda Fisher had returned to her flat on Charles Street when they saw rubbish and a broken TV 'dumped' ioutside.

Preston Crown Court heard how Mr Monk was 'annoyed as it had happened before' and was making a 'lot of noise'.

Prosecutor Michael Knowles said they then noticed a 'ginger haired male' - the defendant - on the roof of a nearby house who shouted "shut the f**k up you're scaring the kids".

The court heard that Luck and Mr Monk then got into an argument before the defendant jumped down from the roof and walked towards the couple in an 'aggressive way'.

Ms Fisher asked him to 'leave it' but he pushed her out of the way and then punched Mr Monk, who suffers from cancer, about eight times.

Mr Knowles said Ms Fisher tried to intervene but Luck pushed her away a second time.

Mr Monk, 41, then fell to the floor before Luck kicked him to the body and head, forcing the victim to 'roll himself into a ball'.

The attack ended when a family member of Luck attended the scene and Ms Fisher helped Mr Monk get to his feet and walk out of the alleyway.

The court heard that Luck was 'still angry and shouting' and followed the couple out onto the main street.

He then pushed Mr Monk to the floor again and began kicking him.

When the victim put out his left arm to get up Luck 'stamped' on it causing an 'audible snapping noise'.

Mr Monk was taken to Blackpool Victoria Hospital and underwent open reduction and internal fixation surgery to fix the arm.

The incident happened on December 29, 2018, and Luck was arrested the next day and taken to Blackpool Police Station.

Mr Knowles said he answered no comment to all questions but agreed to take part in a video identification parade.

Mr Monk positively identified the defendant on January 10, 2019, and he was charged.

Luck, 26, of Charles Street, Blackpool, pleaded guilty to wounding with intent against Mr Monk and common assault against Ms Fisher.

Judge Simon Newell jailed Luck for a total of three years.

A dad who was caught 'moving' cocaine and cannabis deals in Skelmersdale has been jailed for 17 months.

Ronald Gregory, 39, was spotted by police driving a Renault car and officers believed the vehicle 'maybe involved in drug dealing'.

After following and stopping the car, Gregory ran away but was found hiding nearby and arrested.

A clear plastic bag with 27 knotted bags of cocaine and two snap bags of cannabis were found 'close by' after a police dog search.

Preston Crown Court heard how the drugs had a street value of more than £1,200.

A cocaine 'cutting agent' called Benzocaine was also seized.

When Gregory was arrested and interviewed by police he answered 'no comment' to all questions.

The court heard that, in a 'basis of plea' agreed with the prosecution, the defendant said he 'agreed to move drugs from one location to another in exchange for money'.

Gregory, of Beechtrees, Skelmersdale, pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine and cannabis with intent to supply. He was jailed for a total of 17 months

A convicted sex offender who failed to tell police that he had two internet-capable Nintendo DS games consoles has been jailed for 12 months.

Stephen Lewis Hutchinson, from Blackburn, was given a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) in 2017 after being caught with extreme pornography involving animals.

The SHPO prevented the 45-year-old from using any internet-capable device unless it had the capacity to display and retain the internet history and had to be made available on request for inspection by police.

Police attended Hutchinson's home on Whittaker Street on February 10 this year in relation to a 'domestic incident' involving his partner and his son's girlfriend.

Preston Crown Court how one of the officers recognised the defendant as a registered sex offender and asked to check is devices.

Prosecutor Lisa Worsley said Hutchinson handed over a Samsung mobile phone which was checked and didn't breach the SHPO.

When Hutchinson was asked about any other internet-capable devices he said 'no' but a search of his bedroom revealed another Samsung phone and two Nintendo DS consoles.

The defendant said he used the phone 'as an alarm clock' and a search of the device found adult pornography in the search history.

When asked again if he had any other devices he initially said no, but after a few seconds said: "All right. There's another downstairs in a purple box in the living room".

In his police interview, Hutchinson said the Samsung mobile phone was used by himself and his partner as an alarm clock but that it could be used for wi-fi and had a sim card inside.

He said the two Nintendo DS consoles had been checked previously but 'acknowledged he should have disclosed them'.

Hutchinson, formerly of Bacup, pleaded guilty to four counts of breaching the SHPO.

The court heard that he has 37 convictions for 127 offences, including attempted rape and indecent assault in 20015, possessing extreme pornography in 2017 and a previous breach of the SHPO in 2018 resulting an an eight month jail sentence.

Hutchinson was jailed for 12 months and ordered to sign the sign the sex offenders register for 10 years. The court heard that the SHPO remains in effect until 2027.

A dangerous drug driver has been jailed for leading police on a high speed six-mile chase through Preston and Kirkham.

Police tried to stop dad-of-two Stephen Charles Devlin using a stinger device on Garstang Road in Larbreck, near to Windy Harbour Holiday Park.

But the car failed to stop, instead leading police on a dangerous pursuit along the A585 Fleetwood Road and Preston New Road.

At one point other police vehicles tried to block his path but he drove onto a grass verge to avoid them.

Prosecutor Karen Brooks told Preston Crown Court that the six-mile chase lasted eight minutes and during the pursuit Devlin lost one of his tyres.

He was eventually 'boxed in' by three police cars and detained.

She said: "There was a great deal of overtaking along the road when the traffic was heavy in the other direction.

"Police made various attempts to overtake the vehicle to box it in which is a recognised manoeuvre

"Part of the tyres were shredding as the vehicle drove along. For a period of time the defendant was swerving to avoid other vehicles and lost control on a number of occasions.

"There was damage caused to all three police vehicles as they tried to stop him."

The court heard that when self-employed builder Devlin was arrested he tested positive for cannabis.

A blood test showed a reading of 3.6mg of cannabis in 100ml of blood. The legal limit is 2mg.

Devlin, 25, of Selbourne Road, Blackpool, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, drug driving and using a vehicle without insurance.

He was recalled on licence to prison for a previous offence until March 2023.

Recorder Mary Prior QC jailed Devlin for 12 months and banned him from driving for two-and-a-half years.

A Preston man has been jailed for life for murdering his vulnerable friend after moving into his home to care for him.

Steven May suffered 76 rib fractures, a fractured jaw and weighed just six-and-a-half stone at the time of his death.

Police said the 50-year-old was 'drained financially, mentally and eventually, physically' by Darren Taylor and would have been in 'significant and unimaginable amount of pain in the weeks and time just before he died'.

Taylor moved in to Steven’s address in February 2019 and began to control his finances, which included having ownership of his bank card and spending thousands of pounds of his inherited money.

He even continued to withdraw Steven’s money after he died.

Steven, 50, was last seen alive on the evening of May 18 last year on Raven Street after visiting his local shop and died after one final beating at the hands of Taylor.

Taylor reported finding Steven dead on an upstairs bed but it believed that he had struck Steven several times in the downstairs living room at some point after he was last sighted on CCTV.

The assault was so bad that Steven’s jaw was fractured in two places and, had he have survived, he would have been left unable to eat, drink or speak.

He had also suffered a black eye and swollen ear.

In the weeks after Taylor started living with Steven, family and care workers noticed how his demeanour changed.

He rarely went out of the house, became withdrawn, stopped grooming himself and lost a significant amount of weight. He was just six-and-a-half stone at the time of his death.

A post-mortem examination revealed that Steven had subjected to at least five assaults, leaving him with 76 rib fractures, some of which were over four months old.

It was found that the increasing difficulty for Steven to breathe due to his rib injuries, as well as the pain and significant blood loss he suffered after the fractures to his jaw, caused his death.

Some of his injuries were consistent with being struck by a blunt object as well as being punched, stamped on and kicked.

Taylor, 45, of no fixed address, was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 20 years at Preston Crown after being found guilty of murdering Steven.

A drug-fuelled yob who was caught 'dancing' close to a train station platform before threatening to 'cut the throat' of a staff worker has been jailed.

John Wallis was behaving in a 'bizarre' manner at Lancaster Railway Station when Ian Roberts raised concerns for his safety.

Preston Crown Court heard that the defendant was on Platform 3 close to the West Main Line when the incident happened at around 2.30pm on October 19, 2019.

Prosecutor Emma Kehoe said: "He was dancing and getting very close to the platform.

"Mr Roberts was concerned for the defendant's own safety.

"The defendant became aware that Mr Roberts was watching him and left the station."

The court heard that Mr Roberts followed Wallis out of the station and watched him 'try a number of car door handles'.

Wallis then turned to him and said: "Don't tell the police or I'll cut your throat".

Ms Kehoe said Mr Roberts 'felt scared and intimidated' and let the defendant leave. He was later found by police using CCTV and arrested.

Four months later Wallis was caught sneaking into a family home on Wingate Saul Road in Lancaster.

A neighbour spotted him stealing three guitars and a ukulele and alerted the owner.

Wallis, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to a public order offence and burglary.

The court heard that Wallis was given a suspended prison sentence in September 2019 for burgling a haidressers.

Judge Simon Medland QC activated the suspended sentence and jailed Wallis for a total of 14 months.

A convicted sex offender has been jailed for failing to tell police he had an Amazon Fire TV Stick and a secret Barclays account.

Steven Woodcock also had 47 indecent child images on his laptop and installed special software to delete and 'scrub' the internet history, a court heard.

The 44-year-old, who was being managed in the community under a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO), was visited by police last year as part of a routine check.

The SHPO prohibited him from using any internet-capable device unless it had the capacity to display and retain the internet history and had to be made available on request for inspection by police.

Prosecutor Emma Kehoe told Preston Crown Court how Woodcock admitted visiting a library in Morecambe 'up to six times a week' to use the internet.

She said officers were 'concerned about their regular visits' and made enquiries with the library.

The National Crime Agency later confirmed that the defendant's email account had been used to upload two 'indicative images' of seven-year-old girls to Instagram, however the images were 'not in themselves unlawful'.

Police then executed a search warrant at Woodcock's home on Clarendon Road West, Morecambe, and asked him if he had any internet-capable devices.

Ms Kehoe said Woodcock had a Kindle in his bedroom and an Amazon Fire TV Stick in a drawer which breached the SHPO.

Officers also found a Halifax bank card and a Barclays savings account which he had never declared.

His laptop contained one category A indecent image of a child - the most serious - and 46 category C images.

Woodcock pleaded guilty to breaching the SHPO and possessing indecent images

Judge Simon Medland QC said they were 'deliberate and persistent breaches' of the SHPO and jailed Woodcock for two years.

A teenager who lured a “gentle, kind-hearted” sales assistant to a remote beauty spot on a date and stabbed him to death has been locked up for a minimum of 24 years.

Alex Davies, 18, was murdered in Parbold, Lancashire, by Brian Healless, also 18, after they agreed a rendezvous through the dating app Grindr.

Healless, from Chorley, tried to set up similar outdoor meetings with four other males on Grindr in the days after the killing, Preston Crown Court heard.

He had told openly gay Mr Davies, from Skelmersdale, he was “not out yet” and suggested a “discreet spot” halfway between their two homes for their first meeting.

The defendant stabbed him 128 times at the top of Parbold Hill and dragged the Home Bargains worker face down by his collar in the mud, while still alive, and covered his body with branches and leaves.

Healless was then captured on CCTV on the afternoon of April 29 last year calmly riding away from the scene on his mountain bike with his victim’s rucksack on his back.

Sentencing, Judge Mark Brown, the Honorary Recorder of Preston, told him: “Alex was a kind-hearted, gentle and hard-working young man who would never have harmed anyone.

“You lulled him to his death and executed the killing in a savage way. You were undoubtedly setting him up to kill and you are a manipulative, calculating and devious person.

“It is extremely fortuitous that you were arrested before anyone else suffered the same fate.”

A 'mindless' thug who spat and coughed at police officers after breaching coronavirus social distancing rules has been jailed.

David Mott was spotted in a car with two other people on Green Lane, Padiham, when he was stopped by officers.

Lancashire Police said he was given advice about new Government guidelines to stay at home but became 'abusive'.

The 40-year-old then coughed and spat at the officers on 'several occasions'.

Mott, of no fixed abode, was charged with using threatening behaviour towards a police officer, possession of an offensive weapon and possession of a controlled class B drug.

He pleaded guilty to all three charges at Blackburn Magistrates Court and was jailed for a total of 26 weeks.

A sports therapist who murdered a former Blackpool lecturer with a crossbow, has been jailed for a minimum of 31 years.

Terence Whall, 39, was convicted of the murder of Gerald Corrigan who was shot as he adjusted a satellite dish outside his home in Anglesey, North Wales, in the early hours of Good Friday, April 19, last year.

He was sentenced to life at Mold Crown Court.

Mr Corrigan, 74, suffered two holes in his stomach and damage to other organs in the attack. He died three weeks later from sepsis.

Prosecutors said the dish was tampered with and Whall was hiding, armed with the weapon, waiting for Mr Corrigan.

A broadhead arrow used in the attack on Mr Corrigan, a former lecturer at Blackpool College of Art, had razor sharp edges used for hunting, jurors had heard.

It was designed to make hunted animals "rapidly bleed to death".

Speaking in court from behind a screen, Mr Corrigan’s son Neale said through tears: “How can someone choose to use such a barbaric weapon on an old man?

“Did they really want to cause him a slow and painful death? Because that is what we witnessed and although God will ease the pain for us, we will never ever be able to forget that.”

Also reading a statement from behind a screen, Mr Corrigan’s partner, Marie Bailey, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, said: “It is a terrible inferno inside me every day, thinking of how Gerry was murdered and how he suffered.

Whall, originally from east London, had hidden behind a wall outside the pensioner’s remote home and tampered with the satellite dish to lure him into the garden where he shot him.

A gang of human smugglers have been jailed after they were stopped by police on the M5 with 29 Vietnamese immigrants crammed into in the back of their van.

Glen Bennett, 55, from Burnley, and Frank Walling, 72, from Colne, have been sentenced to more than four years in prison for their part in the plot.

Devon and Cornwall Police were contacted on April 12, 2019, after several members of the public saw a group of people getting off a 42ft yacht in Newlyn Harbour, Cornwall.

They were then seen getting into the back of a van which had been parked in the harbour car park.

CCTV footage was reviewed and the van, followed by another car, was stopped on the M5 near Cullompton, Devon.

The van door was opened and officers found 29 Vietnamese nationals inside, including women and children.

They were taken to a multi-agency reception centre and referred to the Home Office and social care services to be managed, Devon and Cornwall Police said.

Two men were arrested in Newlyn Harbour, and two more were held when the van and car were brought to a stop on the M5.

Judge Robert Linford, sentencing the four at Truro Crown Court, said they were motivated by profit and "traded in human misery" with the victims "carted around like freight".

Glen Bennett and Frank Walling, along with Jon Ransom, 63, from Kent, were sentenced to four and a half years in prison.

Keith Plummer, 63, was sentenced to three years and four months.

They were convicted under section 25 of the Immigration Act - assisting unlawful immigration.

It is believed that the 29 victims boarded the yacht, which was called the Johan Sebastian and owned by Walling, in Roscoff, France.

Walling and Bennett crewed the yacht, which came into Newlyn Harbour early on the morning of April 12.

A furious motorist who punched, kicked and stamped on another man in a road rage attack in Adlington has been jailed for 10 months.

David Davies, 43, and Lewis Flynn, 20, were both driving between Chorley and Adlington at around 8.30pm on May 7 2019.

As they entered Park Road in Adlington, Davies braked hard, and unable to stop in time, Mr Flynn drove into the back of him.

Both men got out of their vehicles and a row broke out.

Mr Flynn swung a punch towards Davies, but Davies “lost it” and began raining blows on the younger man.

He punched him to the ground and kicked him at least five times - also stamping on him.

The attack only topped when members of the public intervened and Davies said he had “battered” Mr Flynn.

He later told the police he “lost it.

Davies, of Carrington Road, Adlington, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH).

Michael Maughan has been jailed after he smashed a disabled pub goer over the head with a glass

The 21-year-old, of Hurstwood Avenue, Blackburn, was jailed for a "brutal" attack in which he used two pool cues and a glass on a disabled man who lay unconscious on the floor.

The sustained attack took place in the Railway Pub, Accrington, and saw a drunk Maughan punch the man before wielding the pool cue like a baseball bat and smashing him over the head, hitting him so hard that it broke the cue in half.

As the pub goer lay unconscious on the floor, Maughan retrieved a second pool cue and beat him repeatedly before smashing a glass over his head, laughing throughout the assault.

He then told the pub landlord: "Am I barred? Because if I am I will finish him off," he also threatened to deal out violence to anyone who called the police.

The 21-year-old will spend nine years behind bars for the assault and was classed as a "dangerous offender" by the judge.

The 21-year-old pleaded guilty to section 18 wounding with intent and was given a determinate prison sentence.

He will spend nine years behind bars and was handed a indefinite restraining order with conditions not to approach the victim or enter The Railway pub.

Six members of a Lancashire organised crime group which stole vehicles and ATM machines and targeted homes and businesses have been jailed.

The gang of thieves, which caused misery across rural communities, has been jailed for a total of 29 years.

The six men, who operated mainly in north Lancashire and south Cumbria, appeared at Preston Crown Court this week (February 20 and 21) for sentencing.

The series of thefts they were being sentenced for were carried out between April and September 2018.

During the crime spree members of the gang broke into domestic properties and businesses, stealing thousands of pounds worth of property. They also stole vehicles and targeted four ATM machines.

The gang also caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to property.

In total the value of property stolen and the amount of damage caused totalled hundreds of thousands of pounds.

All six men initially denied their involvement, but eventually pleaded guilty at court.

Brian Thexton, 43, of Park Road, Bishop Auckland, was sentenced to nine years six months for two counts of conspiracy to burgle a dwelling and three counts of conspiracy to steal.

Ronald Thexton, 36, of Park Road, Bishop Auckland, was sentenced to five years 10 months for three counts of conspiracy to burgle a dwelling and three counts of conspiracy to steal.

Michael James Campbell, 28, of no fixed address, was sentenced to two years five months for two counts of conspiracy to burgle dwelling properties.

Connor Palmer, 22, of Burnhope Close, Crook, Co Durham, was sentenced to three years seven months for conspiracy to burgle a non-dwelling, six counts of conspiracy to steal.

Andrew Maddox, 40, of Lincoln Drive, Willington, Co Durham, was sentenced to five years for conspiracy to burgle a dwelling, six counts of conspiracy to steal.

Jordan Fannan, 28, of Oxcliffe Road, Morecambe, was sentenced to two years eight months for two counts of conspiracy to burgle a non-dwelling.

Timothy Stirzaker attacked a cancer suffer with eggs before violently assaulting her outside her flat.

He grabbed victim Sarah Thompson by her hair and pulled her into the hallway before kicking her on the floor.

The 36-year-old suffered a 7cm wound to her head and needed 42 stitches to treat the wound.

She was also left with chipped teeth, a cut to her arm and pain in her lower leg and was treated as an emergency patient at Royal Lancaster Infirmary.

Stirzaker had moved into a block of flats on Thornton Road, Morecambe, in February 2019 and got into a 'series of disputes' with neighbour Ms Thompson.

The victim said items had been thrown out of his flat and she had been verbally abused in the months leading up to the incident on July 13, 2019.

Ms Thompson returned to her flat at 12.30am and Stirzaker started throwing eggs at her from his window.

She later heard a 'loud bang' and realised the defendant had thrown a television into her yard, missing her dog.

At 5.30am Stirzaker and his partner went to Ms Thompson's flat armed with eggs and shouted "You're not so clever now".

The victim phone the police and a short time later heard knocking at her front door.

She thought it was the police but it turned out to be Stirzaker and his partner.

Stirzaker grabbed her by the hair and pulled her into the hallway. She somehow ended up on the floor and 'recalled being kicked'.

The 31-year-old, of Thornton Road, Morecambe, pleaded guilty to GBH.

Stirzaker accepted responsibility for the injuries but 'couldn't say how the head wound was caused'.

He said no weapon was used and claimed it 'could have happened when she fell to the floor'.

He was jailed for 21 months and given a five-year restraining order.

Rebecca Robinson stole £30,000 of cash and sentimental jewellery from a vulnerable, housebound pensioner.

The 35-year-old maxed out credit cards and bank accounts belonging to 79-year-old Margaret Peel.

Mrs Peel was so frail she could not get out of bed, and sadly passed away within months of learning of Robinson’s betrayal.

She first employed mum-of-four Robinson as her carer in 2012 and described her as her best friend.

They took holidays together and Mrs Peel invited Robinson to stay in her home with her children, to care for her when her partner was away.

The pair were so close, Robinson even had Margaret’s name tattooed on her arm.

But in 2016 Robinson fell into debt from an online gambling addiction and began helping herself to Mrs Peel’s accounts.

Over 14 months, she used NatWest debit and credit cards to set up accounts with the online catalogue Very and Marks and Spencer bank.

She ran up credit card debts of £7,500 and £13,000 and even pawned more than £12,000 of Mrs Peel’s sentimental jewellery, which had been handed down from her mother.

By 2018 the situation was so dire Robinson started intercepting Mrs Peel’s mail to cover her tracks.

But her crimes were uncovered when in September 2018 Lancashire Police received a call from Marks and Spencer’s finance department, raising concerns about Mrs Peel’s account.

Officers visited Robinson at home in Clitheroe where she admitted taking around £10,000 in cash withdrawals.

She later admitted she had taken the money and jewellery - but said she had agreed a repayment plan with Mrs Peel for the Very account.

In January 2019, Mrs Peel was admitted to hospital and sadly died on February 18.

Her son said he had also been affected by Robinson’s actions as he was struggling to sleep and suffered heart palpitations.

He had to take time off work to deal with the police, banks and bailiffs.

His father Fred, 86, had become withdrawn and worried about money.

Robinson, who was also in receipt of tax credits during the time she was stealing from her employer, no longer works.

Robinson pleaded guilty to fraud by abuse of position, theft by employee and fraud by false representation.

She was jailed for three years.

Serial conman Tanveer Masood is back behind bars after he tried to scam six people on their doorsteps in East Lancashire.

The 47-year-old is banned from approaching strangers for money under a Criminal Behaviour Order made in 2016.

But in December 2019 and January 2020 he was up to his old tricks, knocking on doors in Blackburn telling sob stories in a bid to con residents out of their cash.

Between December 28 and January 5, Masood, of Johnson Street, Blackburn, targeted six households claiming to have problems with his car.

On some occasions he was carrying a jerry can and asking for money to buy petrol; at others he was asking for taxi money.

Most of the householders sent him away empty handed, but one man handed over £10 as he felt sorry for Masood, and a woman gave him £20.

Masood, who has committed more than 100 criminal offences in his time, pleaded guilty to six breaches of a criminal behaviour order and a count of fraud by false representation.

He was jailed for 16 months.

Tom Garner asked police about an incident on his street while carrying a martial arts throwing knife in his "manbag".

The nosy teenager approached officers on Dickinson Close in Blackburn after they had forced entry into a neighbouring address.

However they easily spotted the knife protruding from a 'man bag' across his chest and arrested him.

Only four months earlier the father-to-be had been given a suspended two-year jail sentence for wounding and possessing an offensive weapon.

Garner, 19, of Dickinson Close, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to possessing a knife in a public place and possessing cannabis.

He was sentenced to 146 days in a young offenders institute for the latest offence with a consecutive 12 months for beaching the suspended sentence order.

A man has been jailed following a knifepoint robbery at a bank in Fleetwood.

Gary Roberts entered the Halifax Bank on Poulton Street with a knife and threatened staff before making off on a bike with a quantity of money.

The incident happened at around 9.15am on December 12, 2019.

The 40-year-old later fled to the Torquay area and was arrested by police on December 15.

Roberts, of Rutland Avenue, Fleetwood, pleaded guilty to robbery and possessing an offensive weapon.

He was sentenced at Preston Crown Court to a total of 40 months in prison.

An angry neighbour brandished a meat cleaver in a row over rubbish left outside his back gate.

Jack Talbot, 28, also headbutted a police officer, leaving her with a four inch wound to her face, which needed stitches.

Talbot, of New Bank Road, Blackburn, was affected by Spice when he committed the offences in July last year.

Preston Crown Court heard on July 8 he approached his neighbour, Kuyab Patel, outside his shop, Optical Care, and asked him to go round the back, where there was rubbish in the alley.

As Talbot became more irate, Mr Patel retreated into the back yard of his shop, but Talbot picked up a piece of wood and started approaching his neighbour.

Once inside the yard, Mr Patel shut the gate, but Talbot continued with his confrontation, throwing the wood over the fence and hitting Mr Patel on the head with it.

A few minutes later he went back to his flat and came out brandishing a meat cleaver, making threats towards Mr Patel and his son.

The court heard Talbot then discarded the meat cleaver back in his flat and returned to the alley, where he picked up a metal pole.

Mr Patel grabbed the pole and managed to push him away, bringing an end to the incident.

However three days later the Patel family heard banging and crashing coming from Talbot’s flat.

Talbot was hanging out of the window, threatening to smash the glass in Mr Patel’s shop.

Police officers arrived and seeing Talbot’s erratic behaviour, formed the view he was under the influence of drugs.

When asked if he had anything he shouldn’t have, Talbot produced a small amount of cannabis from his pocket.

Two officers took Talbot to the ground and placed him in leg restraints until he calmed down.

But once the restraints had been removed and Talbot was being walked to the police van, he tried to bite PC Singh and headbutted PC Roscoe to the side of her head.

PC Roscoe was taken to hospital where the injury was stitched, but the court heard she is likely to be left with a permanent scar.

Talbot pleaded guilty to common assault on Mr Patel, threatening with a bladed article, possession of a class B controlled drug, ABH on PC Roscoe and assault of an emergency worker.

The judge jailed Talbot for a total of eight months for ABH, two months for assault on an emergency worker, three months for making threats with a bladed article, and a month for the assault on his neighbour.

All the sentences are to run consecutively, totalling 14 months behind bars for Talbot.

A crowbar-wielding burglar hung half way out of a stolen car as it was rammed by police.

Kurtis Nelson, 26, leapt through the window of the Audi A3 after a burglary at Ormskirk Spitroast was interrupted by police.

He was injured in the collision, which also saw getaway driver Lee Brown, 26 and of Muirhead Avenue in Liverpool, bump into the police car before fleeing in a getaway which reached speeds of 90mph.

Prosecuting the pair at Preston Crown Court, Hanita Patel detailed how, alongside a third man who was not named, they smashed their way into three businesses in the space of a few hours to steal tills and safes.

At around 12.30am on January 6, the pair first struck at a Costa Coffee shop in Ormskirk, where they cleared out a safe which contained almost £500.

Hours later, they broke doors to gain entry to Posthouse bar in Wigan, causing around £1,300 worth of damage and stealing £100 in cash.

They then struck at Spitroast, at the Stiles, breaking through glass doors to access the main building. They also took an internal door off its hinges to access safes, eventually stealing a total of £,1450 and causing £2,400 of damage.

Ms Patel said that a neighbour called the police after hearing the alarm triggered at Spitroast and noticing the Audi parked outside.

She continued: “PC Gallagher was on duty that night and he was at the police station in Ormskirk.

“He heard that a call was made about a burglary taking place. He and a colleague decided to walk over.”

Arriving through the car park, he noticed one person appear to run away but headed inside as the burglary appeared to be ongoing.

A fight then broke out with the third member of the group wielding a wooden and cast iron table, swinging it in his direction.

Nelson then arrived with a crowbar and both ran towards PC Gallagher as the third man shouted, “f***ing get him, f***ing get him!”

Nelson, of Kemsley Road, Liverpool , landed one blow on the officer’s leg with his crowbar and a table was thrown towards him as the pair escaped the building.

He leapt into an open window of the getaway car driven by Brown and a ‘dangerous and high speed’ chase ensued.

At one stage a police car rammed into the stolen car, which had false registration plates attached, and Nelson was left with a shattered ankle and broken shin bone.

The pair managed to evade patrol cars but a police helicopter kept track of their movements and they were soon found hiding in the bedrooms of a Kirkby flat, with the stolen goods still inside the car.

Brown admitted three burglaries, using a stolen car and a number of driving offences and was sentenced to a total of 50 weeks and banned from driving for two years.

Nelson pleaded guilty to the burglaries and assaulting a police officer and was handed a 38 week sentence.

As he was taken down, he turned to the public gallery and declared, “I’ll be out in a week”.

A man who relocated to Tenerife after being accused of historic sex crimes in Lancashire is now behind bars.

Thomas Robert Peel indecently assaulted a young boy in Barnoldswick around 20 years ago and made him perform sex acts on him.

The 35-year-old defendant was a teenager when he committed the offences at the turn of the century and did it 'as some form of sexual experimentation', a court heard.

A Judge said 'the memory of that incident is seared onto [the victim's] brain' and that he 'buried the memory of the abuse for many years' until reporting it to police in 2018.

Preston Crown Court heard that when the allegations were first made Peel's wife 'terminated' their marriage and restricted access to his son.

He then relocated to Tenerife and worked as a bar manager before leaving the job last week.

Peel, of Barnoldswick, pleaded guilty to one count of indecency with a child and was found guilty after a trial of three other counts of indecency with a child.

He was jailed for two years and ordered to sign the sex offenders register for 10 years.

Four men have been jailed for a total of 50 years after a £600,000 of cocaine was seized by police.

Yasser Shah, 31, of Thornbank, Bolton, ran an organised crime group based in and out of the Blackburn and Bolton.

Following an investigation by the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit, more than 20kg of high purity cocaine with a wholesale value of more than £600,000 was seized.

The gang was involved in running a drugs operation that saw large quantities of cocaine moved up from the Midlands to throughout the North of England between March 2018 and May 2019.

On December 13, 2018, Bilal Ashraf, 30 of Whitewell Place, Blackburn, was stopped by police on his way back from Coventry and was arrested in possession of 10kg kilograms of cocaine.

Then on February 28, 2019, Hassam Rasool, 26, of Ryhl Avenue, Blackburn, was stopped by police on his way back from Telford and arrested in possession of 10kg of cocaine he had collected from Martin Lewis, 54, of Firbeck Gardens, Stafford.

Finally, in May 2019, Gul Bahar, 38, from Halifax, and a second man who was later acquitted were arrested in Tesco car park in Halifax after a police search of their vehicle resulted in the seizure of 1kg of cocaine.

Four men were sentenced to prison for a combined total of 50 years.

Shah pleaded guilty at trial and was sentenced to 17 years in prison. Ashraf pleaded guilty at trial and was sentenced to 13 years in prison.

Rasool pleaded guilty at trial and was sentenced 11 years in prison. Lewis pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine years in prison.

A 'violent' man has been jailed following a 'shocking and brutal attack' involving a machete in Nelson.

Nasar Ahmed, 19, of Reedyford Road, Nelson, has been sentenced after admitting the serious assault of two men.

Police were called to the Brunswick Street area at around 1.15am on July 19 last year.

They had received reports a number of men carrying machetes and bats had been involved in a fight.

Officers attended and a 19-year-old man was found at the scene having suffered serious injuries to his legs and hand.

A second man, also aged 19, was found to have suffered a serious injury his back.

Both men were taken to hospital for treatment.

Detectives from Lancashire Police quickly established Ahmed had been involved in a dispute with one of the victims

He later confronted both men with a machete, leaving them with devastating injuries.

Ahmed was arrested by police and later charged with two counts of attempted murder.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of Section 18 wounding and was jailed for 11 years at a Young Offender Institute.

A cannabis addict who targeted a 90-year-old woman, Lancaster and Morecambe College and two seaside hotels in a 'burglary spree' has been jailed.

Scott Taylor got into the pensioner's home in Morecambe through and unlocked window at around 1am and stole her purse as she slept.

The 26-year-old then went on a spending spree at local petrol stations using her contactless bank cards.

The dad-of-two was released under investigation by police and later burgled The Auckland Hotel in Morecambe.

CCTV showed the defendant enter the hotel using his mobile phone and then lean over the reception counter before disappearing down a corridor to a staff area.

Taylor stole a master key to all the hotel bedrooms and it will cost the hotel £3,000 to replace all the locks.

Taylor then targeted Lancaster and Morecambe College on November 4 and 18 last year.

The court heard how he sneaked into two staff members offices and stole their bank cards before making around a dozen contactless card payments in local shops and newsagents.

He then sneaked into the staff area of The Midland Hotel in Morecambe.

He stole a bank card from one employee and used his stolen bank cards at a newsagent in Morecambe.

He also swiped a Ted Baker Purse containing £280 cash from the bag of a hotel waitresses.

Taylor, of Euston Road, Morecambe, pleaded guilty to four counts of burglary and seven counts of fraud by false representation.

He was jailed for a total of three years.

A former soldier with PTSD who launched a 'terrifying and frenzied' machete attack at a petrol station after binging on brandy and cocaine has been given a 12-year jail sentence and classed as a dangerous offender.

David Poucher, who was medically discharged from the army after tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, said he 'needed to blow off some steam' when he went to the MFG Savoy garage on Blackburn Road in Darwen.

The offender later told police: "Given the opportunity I would do it again. I'm surprised I've not done it sooner."

Preston Crown Court heard that as soon as Poucher entered the garage shop on December 4, 2019, he slashed taxi driver Bernard Goulding to the back with the machete and pushed him to the floor.

Poucher then leapt onto the counter 'totally out of control' before a 'very brave' 76-year-old customer tried to pull him down.

Prosecutor Paul Brookwell said the defendant pushed the pensioner to the floor before pulling out a large knife and threatening him.

The court heard that Poucher, 28, then chased the shop worker around the store and the victim 'made a mad rush to escape'.

Mr Goulding picked up the machete and locked himself in his taxi before Poucher attacked his vehicle with the knife.

Police and paramedics were called to the scene and Mr Goulding was taken to hospital where he needed 10 stitches to the 'nasty gash' on his back.

Mr Brookwell said Poucher ran away from the garage onto Hawkshaw Avenue in Darwen and broke the window of a house.

The owner described hearing the defendant 'growling and howling outside on more than one occasion'.

Poucher was eventually arrested on School Street in Darwen when a police officer rugby tackled him to the floor.

Officers said he was 'obviously under the influence of drugs' and was taken to hospital.

Poucher, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to attempted robbery, GBH, possessing offensive weapons in a public place, criminal damage and assault.

He was sentenced to eight years in prison and given an extended four year licence period after being classed as a 'dangerous offender'.

A young father with eight previous driving bans was caught again by police behind the wheel after coming up with a 'harebrained removal business idea'.

Preston Crown Court heard how William Anthony Molyneux was stopped on the M55 near Blackpool using cloned number plates.

The 23-year-old told officers at the scene that he was "helping a friend" move items from a caravan and had bought the Maxus van for £2,500, despite being disqualified and having no insurance.

Prosecutor Mercedes Jabbari said Molyneux has been disqualified from driving on eight previous occasions by the courts and also received a suspended 20-week jail sentence in January 2019 for similar offences.

The latest incident happened on November 5, 2019 and Molyneux pleaded guilty to fraudulently used a car registration mark and driving while disqualified and with no insurance.

Recorder Mary Prior QC jailed Molyneux, of Poplar Avenue, Horwich, for 26 weeks and disqualified him driving for 12 months.

A DJ who supplied cocaine and MDMA to feed his drug habit after leaving the army has been jailed.

Anthony Collinge served in Afghanistan during his seven years service and was arrested by police after they stopped his car on the A59 near Whalley on November 13 last year.

Officers found several snap bags of cocaine and MDMA as well as MDMA pills, £110 in cash and an iPhone behind the drivers seat.

More drugs were found at his home along with drug taking paraphernalia, including a mirror, credit cards and a rolled up bank note held together by the ring pull from a can.

The drugs had a street value of more than £600.

Preston Crown Court heard that when the defendants mobile phone was examined it included 75 pages of messages with a woman who was known to him and who he was supplying drugs to.

The messages also showed that the 30-year-old was also asking her about unpaid debts but was not threatening.

Collinge, of Union Street, Clitheroe, pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine and MDMA with intent to supply, as well as being concerned in the making of an offer to supply cocaine.

He was jailed for 45 months.

A father who fractured his five-week-old son's legs in multiple places after getting 'extremely stressed' changing him has been jailed.

The 25-year-old, from Haslingden, grabbed the baby's legs "with force" and caused him to "scream in pain like he had never done before".

When doctors later examined him they found he had suffered five fractures to his bones and nine bruises, including one to the cheek and one beneath the chin.

The defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, tried to blame an older child for causing the injuries before telling police it could have happened when he accidentally caught his legs on a doorpost.

When the father eventually admitted the offences he told officers he was "going to lose everything".

Preston Crown Court heard how social services were alerted to the baby's injuries after a health visitor attended at the family home.

A radiological examination found that the baby had suffered five fractures to his bones, two towards the bottom of the thigh bone and the upper shin bone, a fracture to the left knee and ankle, and fractures towards the end of the bones around the knees.

Defence barrister Barbara Webster said the father was 'tremendously sorry for his actions on that day'.

She said: "He regrets it every single day and will spend the rest of his life regretting that instance.

The defendant pleaded guilty to one count of child cruelty and was jailed for 22 months.

Judge Andrew Jefferies QC described the incident as a momentary loss of temper.

He told the court that the defendant has no previous convictions, is clearly very hardworking and cited a number of positive character references.

He said: "The consequences [of his actions] will be far more reaching than what will be imposed on him

Addressing the father, he added: "This is an act of temper in a moment that you obviously should not have acted upon.

"You know what you did and you will have to live with that."

A prolific shoplifter who targeted business across Hyndburn just days after being given a court suspended sentence is now behind bars.

John Riley targeted 15 stories in Accrington, Rishton and Clayton-le-Moors over a three-month period.

When the 31-year-old was arrested by officers from Hyndburn Neighbourhood Policing Team he was found in possession of 11 blocks of cheese which he had recently stolen.

Riley had been wanted by police since his offending spree started in October 2019 and during that time stole items worth £9000.

Hyndburn Police said Riley carried out the shop thefts within days of being granted an 18-week suspended sentence by the courts for similar offences earlier last year.

Riley was jailed for a total of 38 weeks and given a criminal behaviour order banning him from entering several Hyndburn stores for 30 months.

Two drug dealers who were caught with Kinder Eggs stashed with heroin have been jailed.

Nasir Iqbal and Abas Arif were driving towards Blackpool when they were stopped by police officers at around 9.30am on June 3, 2019.

Preston Crown Court heard that when their vehicle was searched Iqbal, who was in the passenger seat, “indicated” to officers that there was class A drugs on him, as well as two Kinder Eggs.

Prosecutor Francis McEntee said after the pair were arrested one police officer then noticed that plastic bags had been spat out on the floor.

Iqbal's defence barrister Mr Holland told the court that his client had been told to swallow any drugs he had on him if he was stopped by police officers

He added that it “illustrated his naivety” in the drugs trade.

In total nine plastic packages of heroin were recovered from the two Kinder Eggs.

The search of the car, defendants and coughed up plastic bags produced 23 packages of heroin and 21 packages of crack cocaine.

The court heard that there was also a further 12 packages of cocaine and a smaller, single amount of cocaine, with the haul having a total a street value of around £800.

Iqbal, 37, of Pilgrim Court, Dewsbury, was jailed for three years, with 124 days he had spent on curfew since the arrest to be taken into account.

Arif, of Burgh Mill Lane, Dewsbury, was jailed three years and five months.

A Blackpool drug dealer been sent to jail for three years after selling crack cocaine and heroin to undercover police officers.

Preston Crown Court heard how on December 19 and 20, 2017, Christopher Teasdale, of Selby Road, York, sold the Class A drugs to 'Jason' and 'Emma', two undercover police officers that were part of a task force in Blackpool and Liverpool to tackle the town's and city's drug problems.

On December 16, 'Jason' received a text message offering drugs, followed by a second text at 10.30am on December 19 offering drugs once again. The two officers travelled to Blackpool where 'Jason' placed a call to the number.

It was answered by a man with a Liverpudlian man offering crack cocaine and heroin.

The officers arrived at a pub car park in Blackpool where they were greeted by 57-year-old Teasdale, who sold them crack cocaine and heroin to the value of £25.

The next day, 'Jason' made another call asking for further supply of heroin. Once again they met Teasdale on the same pub car park where he this time provided heroin to the officers.

The prosecution told the court that Teasdale had been threatened by drug dealers from Liverpool to sell drugs for a period of two days to pay off a debt he owed.

Teasdale was arrested on April 2, 2019 and admitted to the crimes while being interviewed by police.

He was sentenced for two years and 10 months for the drugs offences and a further two months for not attending court when asked to do so last year.

A man who stole catalytic converters with his son to fund a weekend of drinking in Blackpool has been jailed.

William Cawley senior, 40 and 44-year-old Christian Greenwood, pleaded guilty to four counts of theft as well as one count of attempted theft from a motor vehicle and were both given 10 month prison sentences at Preston Crown Court

Cawley's 21-year-old son, William Cawley junior, also pleaded guilty to the same crimes but escaped with just a community order.

The trio targeted cars across Blackpool and Thornton-Cleveleys, on the afternoon of August 6, 2019, taking catalytic converters worth around £2,000 from several parked cars.

The two Cawley's plus Greenwood had been binge drinking in the Blackpool area on August 6 and run out of money.

They decided that stealing catalytic converters and selling them on to backstreet dealers would be a quick way to make cash.

William Cawley, 40, of Wimpole Street, Oldham received a 10 month custodial sentence.

His 20-year-old son, William Cawley, of Belton Avenue, Rochdale, received 120 hours of unpaid work as part of a community order.

Christian Greenwood, 44, of Cook Terrace, Rochdale, received a 10 month custodial sentence and was banned from driving.

A fourth person is wanted by police in connection to this incident.

A paedophile has been jailed over historic sexual abuse acts against a 10-year-old Lancashire boy - acts that led to the victim trying to take his own life.

Adrian Gartshore-Taylor, 66, now of West End Road, Morecambe, pleaded guilty to four counts of incident assault against a boy under the age of 14 and one count of indecency with a child or boy under 16.

Preston Crown Court heard how Gartshore-Taylor had targeted the boy multiple times over weeks and months in 2002 at Great Birchwood Country Park and Campsite at Warton, near Lytham.

Gartshore-Taylor, who was a car boot salesman living in a caravan on the site, enticed the boy - who cannot be identified due to legal reasons - to work for him and help him sell his goods.

On one occasion he convinced the boy's father to let him stay overnight at his caravan so that they could start setting up the car boot stall early in the morning.

The prosecutor told the court how this was simply a ploy for Gartshore-Taylor to groom the boy, with the child being abused on multiple occasions in the caravan between January 1 and November 29, 2002.

Gartshore-Taylor would show the child how to play computer games on his laptop, during which he would start sexually assaulting him. This happened on multiple occasions.

The 66-year-old, now of West End Road, Morecambe, pleaded guilty to four counts of incident assault against a boy under the age of 14 and one count of indecency with a child or boy under 16.

He was jailed for a total of seven years.

A Rossendale drug user travelled to Ulverston to sell heroin and cannabis after falling into debt with dealers.

Pascoe Gilheney, 18, was caught at a flat in Swan Street on July 30 last year when police responded to reports a woman had been seriously injured.

When they arrived at the property they found the 18-year-old and another man, along with a local drug user who was known to the police.

Gilheaney tried to escape through a first floor window but was stopped by the police.

He and the other man gave false names and dates of birth, but were identified after spending almost 24 hours in police custody.

While the men were at the police station, officers searched the flat and found heroin and cannabis hidden in a mobile phone box in a drawer in a coffee table.

They also found paraphernalia including digital scales and kinder eggs.

Gilheaney had £300 in cash and a mobile phone matching the box the drugs were hidden in.

He was identified when officers searched through paperwork at the flat and matched his face to his Facebook profile picture.

Gilheaney, of Hope Street, Rossendale, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply class A and B drugs and appeared at Preston Crown Court to be sentenced.

He was sentenced to 28 months in a Young Offenders Institution for possession with intent to supply heroin, and 12 months concurrent for possession with intent to supply cannabis.

The judge added a further month for breach of the conditional discharge.

A 16-year-old boy has been sentenced to four years behind bars after stabbing another boy in the back in Skelmersdale.

His victim, who has since turned 17, was lucky to have survived the attack in Firbeck on January 4 2020

Preston Crown Court heard the 16-year-old, who can not be named for legal reasons, started carrying a knife ‘for protection’ in 2019.

But on January 4 he got involved in a confrontation with the other boy, who ran away along the footpath.

The teenager ran after him and stabbed him in the back, causing an 8.7cm wound which punctured the other boy’s lung.

Paramedics gave him life-saving treatment at the scene before taking him to hospital in a critical condition.

The 16-year-old pleaded guilty to Section 18 wounding with intent.

The teenager will serve his sentence at a Young Offenders Institution.

A disqualified driver has been jailed after police were forced to use a stinger device to deflate the tyres on a mobility car.

Rheese Bailey claims he 'borrowed' the vehicle from a friend and was spotted by officers travelling along Preston New Road towards Blackpool at 11.20pm on December 27 last year.

Police followed the Kia Sportage and activated their lights and sirens but the defendant refused to stop.

Prosecutor David Clarke told Preston Crown Court that police colleagues set up a stinger device and the defendant drove over it, deflating the front off-side tyre.

When Bailey's details were checked they found he was disqualified until December 2022, had no insurance and was subject to a suspended prison sentence imposed in June 2019.

Bailey told officers at the scene that he had borrowed the Kia from a friend and maintained the account in his station interview.

The 27-year-old, originally from Preston, pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified and having no insurance.

He was jailed for two months.

A homeless teenager who robbed vulnerable and elderly woman of their handbags to fund his drug habit has been jailed and classed as a 'dangerous offender'.

Wesley Powell targeted six women and two teenage girls in Accrington in a two day spree before robbing a shop worker in Brierfield of a charity box and another man of a bike after meeting him on Facebook.

Preston Crown Court heard how the victims were left 'haunted' by the incidents and feeling 'very frightened and vulnerable'.

The Judge said the defendant had 'been at war with himself and the authorities' and the victims 'were in no position to defend themselves'.

Powell carried out the offences against nine women and one man, on two days in October 2018 and two days in March 2019.

During all but three of the incidents he stole or attempted to steal victims’ handbags.

Two of the victims, women aged 64 and 83, were attacked and dragged to the floor so violently they lost consciousness. Thankfully they both made a full recovery.

In total Powell is believed to have gained just a small amount of cash totalling around £10.

Powell, of Leeds Road, Nelson, pleaded guilty to robbery, attempted robbery and theft and was jailed for a total of 45 months.

A man who pushed, strangled and bit his partner before shouting a racial slur at a police officer on his arrest has been jailed.

Preston Crown Court heard how on December 27, 2019, Jason Bullows visited a friends house in Bamber Bridge along with his partner of two years at around 7.30pm in the evening.

The prosecution told how the victim was making dinner when the defendant found his phone and proceeded to go through it.

Bullows, who usually took medication to calm him down, then decided to challenge the victim about messages on the device that he accused him of sending.

Having not taken his usual medication and under the influence of alcohol, Bullows - originally from the Manchester area - decided to have more alcohol.

He stormed into the kitchen in an aggressive manner and pushed the victim in the hallway where he banged his head on an ornament.

Bullows then put his hands around the victim's neck and squeezed tightly, before biting him on the cheek and his arm.

The defendant then started to be sick and police were called. Bullows was then taken to hospital by the police.

On arrest at hospital, he was taken to a police station where he shouted racial slur to custody staff.

The victim suffered a cut on his left arm and scratch marks to his right arm.

Bullows was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment with a five years restraining order.

A 'controlling and coercive' thug who headbutted and stamped on his partner in a 'cowardly and vicious' attack at her family home has been jailed.

Liam Cafferkey turned up at the victims house on Yewtree Avenue in Ribbleton after getting a taxi from Royal Lancaster Infirmary, a court heard.

Despite being told not to enter the property, the 29-year-old used his key to unlock the door and told victim "You're not so clever now, you're not so gangster now".

Prosecutor Rachel Woods told Preston Crown Court said he then ran at her and punched her to the ribs before 'upending her on the stairs'.

Cafferkey then stood over her and stamped on her legs, arms and body.

The court heard that as she screamed for help the defendant 'mimicked her' by also shouting "help me, help me'".

Cafferkey then followed her into an upstairs bedroom and headbutted her to the nose and punched her.

Ms Woods said she put up her arms to protect herself but the defendant continued to punch her to the arms and ribs.

He then put his hands around her throat and squeezed saying "I'm going to f***ing kill you".

The victim tried to kick him off and dug her nails into his hand before managing to break free and shouted again for help.

The court heard that Cafferkey then stopped the assault and went outside the pay the taxi driver.

Ms Woods said she locked the door behind him as he left and the taxi driver had already called the police.

When officers arrived at the scene Cafferkey claimed it was "just an argument" but was seen to be 'animated, angry and confrontational'.

The defendant was seen to have cuts and grazes and claimed he had been run over by a car earlier in the night and attended hospital in Lancaster.

After Cafferkey left the area the victim opened the door to police and was seen to have a badly swollen left cheek, bruising and swelling to he arms.

Ms Woods said the pair had been in a 'very troubled relationship' for around two years but the last few months was 'on and off'.

She told the court that Cafferkey had previously been violent to her and 'also made an effort to isolate her from her friends and family'.

The prosecutor said the attack at 3am on October 14 last year was 'not an isolated incident' and he had previously headbutted and punched holes in the house and pulled her hair.

The court was told that it came to a point where she refused to go anywhere in the car with him as he would "kick off".

Ms Woods said the victim did not call the police after previous incidents as she 'feared repercussions'.

In a victim impact statement read out at court, she said the October 14 attack was the "worst beating" she had received from the defendant.

She also described how her "confidence and self-worth has been taken away" and she is still receiving pain medication months later.

Cafferkey, of Boys Lane, Fulwood, pleaded guilty to ABH. He was jailed for 27 months and given a restraining order.

A New Year's Eve reveller who was '10 out of 10 drunk' held a knife to a landlords face after a mass brawl broke out in a Blackburn pub, a court heard.

Barry Duffy stopped Ashley Balmer as he tried to break up the fight at the Lord Raglan pub by holding the knife to his cheek and saying "Don't even think about doing it, don't you dare".

When Mr Balmer's partner Karyn Bibby later found the dropped knife on the floor and hid it behind the bar, Duffy said "Where's that barmaid? I want my blade. If that gets to the police it's got my prints on it. Please get it or I'll burn or bomb this place down."

Preston Crown Court heard how the fight broke out in the pool room of the pub at 12.45am following a drunken disagreement between a close group of friends.

It included co-defendants Chelsea Foxton, her partner Nathan Clegg, Paul Scott and John Mason.

Prosecutor David Traynor said Clegg and Foxton both approached Scott and Mason and a 'finger was pointed in the face of Mason'.

'Instigator' Clegg then tried to punch Mason and pushed Foxton away before Foxton took her shoes off.

A 'mass brawl' then developed with Foxton throwing pool balls and hitting people with a pool cue and Scott hitting someone with a bar stool on two occasions.

Mr Traynor said when police arrived and arrested Mason he 'used his body weight' to break free and run off and was chased by an officer.

The court heard that during the chase the officer fell and broke his wrist in three places and sprained his other wrist.

He required surgery to insert a metal plate and was unable to work for three months.

Duffy, of Sunny Bank, Kirkham, pleaded guilty to affray and possessing a knife in a public place.

His defence barrister Hayley Bennett told the court that the father-of-two was '10 out of 10 drunk' on the night and had 'no recollection of being in the pub'.

Recorder Geoffrey Payne jailed Duffy for 16 months.

An alcohol and drug fuelled thug with a 'casual arrogance to violence' who launched a brutal attack on a defenseless man in Blackburn town centre has been jailed.

Jamie Douglas Bullen knocked out victim Jason Procter in the early hours of June 2 last year with a ferocious punch before kicking him twice on the floor.

The remorseless 32-year-old then 'slapped him around the face and as a parting shot flicked his nose', a court heard.

The shocking incident was immediately witnessed on CCTV by police officers who rushed to the scene.

Mr Procter was found bleeding profusely on the pavement and suffered a laceration to his head and a 'bust lip'.

He was taken to Royal Blackburn Hospital for treatment but 'refused to raise a formal complaint'.

Prosecutor Mercedes Jabbari told Preston Crown Court that a short time after the attack on Mr Procter the defendant then attended the home of Paula Smith - his ex-partner's sister - in Blackburn.

Bullen was seen 'waving a hammer around and shouting aggressively toward her' before smashing the back window of her car.

He then ran off down the street and drove away in a Vauxhall Corsa before the victim's husband Karl Smith returned home.

Ms Jabbari said Mr Smith then followed the defendant to the home of Karen Smith - Bullen's ex-partner - on Ailsa Road and when he went into the house he heard voices upstairs.

Mr Smith saw Bullen by the side of the bed using an 'aggressive tone towards Karen Smith'.

Ms Jabbari said Mr Smith punched Bullen who then fell onto the bed before Ms Smith shouted the word "knife".

The court heard that Mr Smith looked down and saw Bullen holding a knife in his right hand and they 'both ended up in a scuffle on the floor'.

Bullen eventually dropped the weapon saying "I don't need a knife" and walked out of the house.

Ms Jabbari said Mr Smith followed him outside before realising he had a 'scratch and small puncture across his chest'.

Bullen got back into the Corsa before officers arrived at the scene and arrested him.

He provided a roadside breath test of 52mg in 100ml - the legal limit is 35mg - and officers also seized a small amount of cannabis.

When interviewed at the station, Bullen said the attack on Mr Procter was in "retaliation" to "hurtful comments" made by the victim two months earlier.

Ms Jabbari said when the defendant was shown CCTV footage of the attack he replied "I was nasty there wasn't I?".

He then said he "wasn't sorry about it" and would commit the offence again, the court heard.

Bullen admitted to drinking before the incident and taking 1g of cocaine and Valium.

Bullen, of Whitebirk Road, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to GBH, common assault, criminal damage, drink driving and possessing cannabis.

He was jailed for three years and disqualified from driving for two years.

Two men who launched a 'terrifying and sustained attack' on two residents in an aggravated burglary have been jailed for more than six years.

The incident happened in October when Liam Hodgson, 28, and Michael Dawson, 22, attended Meadow Brook house in St Ignatius Square, Preston, armed with a baseball bat.

Police said they forced their way into the property and threatened the two occupants before subjecting them to a 'terrifying and sustained attack' all while helping themselves to various items from inside the property.

Lancashire Police's Team 1 Response officers rushed to the scene and detained the two men hiding in another flat in the building.

Officers seized the baseball bat and found the outstanding stolen property.

Hodgson, of Lancaster Road North, Preston, and Dawson of Bloomfield Court, Preston, were subsequently charged with aggravated burglary and remanded until the trial date which was set to take place in March.

The two men have since pleaded guilty at Preston Crown Court and both been sentenced to six years and nine months in prison.

Two men with a 'lifetime of criminal offending' distracted a garage owner to swipe a £12,500 car before using it to burgle a remote house, a court heard.

Anthony Howell and Kieran O'Leary attended Rayrigg Motors in Morecambe 'under the guise' of wanting to buy a car and started speaking to the owner.

Preston Crown Court heard that during the conversation one of the defendant's went into the office and stole the keys to a Kia Sportage which had been left at the garage for repairs.

The vehicle was driven off and then spotted five days later outside a house in Carnforth, near The Highwayman Pub.

Prosecutor Peter Barr said a neighbour, who was suspicious of the vehicle parked on the road, raised concerns with the house owner through social media.

When CCTV was later examined it showed two men breaking into a garage at the house and stealing two mountain bikes worth £680.

Police were dispatched to look for the Kia and the court heard that driver Howell initially failed to stop when flagged down by an officer.

Mr Barr said the 54-year-old was eventually arrested along with passenger O'Leary and they were taken to a local police station.

O'Leary was then identified as the burglar of a separate house in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, three weeks earlier.

Howell, of Falside Walk, Newton Heaton, Manchester, pleaded guilty to burglary, theft and driving without insurance and no licence. He was jailed for 21 months.

O'Leary, 35, of Eastburn Avenue, Collyhurst, Manchester, pleaded guilty to theft, burglary, handling stolen goods and possessing an article for use in fraud. He was jailed for three years and nine months.

A burglar broke into a family home just months after being released from prison and left a nine-year-old girl feeling ‘traumatised’, a court heard.

Jordan Woodburn, of Church, gained entry into the property in Fence while the victims were asleep and stole various items, including mobile phones, a wallet and the girl’s game console.

Keys for the family’s Volkswagen Jetta were also swiped from a coat pocket in the kitchen and used to steal the car off the driveway.

Prosecutor Peter Barr told Burnley Crown Court that the car was later found crashed and had sustained ‘quite extensive’ damage.

DNA from former milkman Woodburn, 21, was recovered from the driver’s seat but Mr Barr said that ‘someone else was seen driving the vehicle immediately before it was crashed’.

In a victim impact statement, the victims said their nine-year-old daughter had been left ‘particularly traumatised by the incident’ and scared to sleep at night.

Ten days later Woodburn was forensically linked to a BMW stolen in another house burglary in Sough.

Mr Barr said the defendant’s fingerprints were found on the rear view mirror and when interviewed about both offences he made ‘no comment’ to all questions.

Woodburn, of Canal Street, pleaded guilty to burglary and handling stolen goods.

Judge Sara Dodd sentenced Woodburn to 32 months in prison and disqualified him from driving for 27 months.

A 'sexual predator' who secretly filmed women and children undressing in public changing rooms and sunbeds and using disabled toilets has been jailed.

William David Smith targeted dozens of victims at the Trafford Centre in Manchester, Darwen Leisure Centre, sunbed shops in Greater Manchester and other leisure centre wet rooms across Lancashire over a four-year period.

The 31-year-old used a 'specially adapted' mobile phone covered in black tape to film women and children getting changed in adjoining cubicles.

The pervert also 'manually removed' air vents at sunbed shops to create a 'hole' for his camera and in some cases 'inadvertently recorded his own face'.

A forensic analysis of the mobile phone showed dozens of other incidents at the Trafford Centre and sunbed shops in Rawtenstall and Greater Manchester.

In September 2017, Smith made five secret videos in disabled toilets at the Trafford Centre.

The defendant placed the camera behind the toilet and then 'flushed and used the hand dryer to maintain the pretense that he used the facilities'.

The footage showed women pulling down their clothing and using the toilet.

In separate incidents, Smith also filmed women using changing rooms at different Trafford Centre shops from 2017 to 2019.

The court heard that GPS locations could not be identified for 64 videos showing women changing in wet rooms at different leisure centres in Lancashire.

Smith pleaded guilty to 18 counts of voyeurism, two counts of attempted voyeurism and two counts of making indecent images of children.

Smith was jailed for 40 months and ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life.

Judge Beverley Lunt also handed the defendant a 'proportionate' 10-year sexual harm prevention order banning him from 'entering or loitering outside' any female-only facilities.

He must also declare all memberships of clubs or leisure centres to police and use his real name.

A pair of criminals were caught with a loaded sawn-off shotgun in the boot of their car on the forecourt of a Chorley petrol station.

Marcus Grange, 29, and Luke Hatfield, 32, claimed the weapon was not theirs and had been left in the car by another driver.

The pair, from Blackley, Manchester, insisted they had no intention of using the gun and were on their way to a caravan site in Blackpool when they were stopped.

Hatfield was wearing latex gloves and Grange had a live shotgun cartridge in his pocket.

Preston Crown Court heard officers boxed in the men’s Volkswagen Golf on the forecourt of the Shell garage in Preston Road, Wheelton, after reports of erratic driving and a disturbance inside the shop.

They searched the vehicle and discovered the Winchester pump action shotgun in the boot.

It was loaded and the barrel had been shortened, the court heard.

Both men had previously been in prison for serious offences and in 2011 a judge dubbed Hatfield a dangerous offender when he was handed an indeterminate sentece (IPP) for robbery.

Both men pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm and possession of a firearm when prohibited.

Grange, of Alworth Road, also admitted a racially aggravated public order offence and failing to provide a specimen of breath.

The judge jailed Hatfield, of Chain Road, for three years. Grange was jailed for 42 months.

Two men have been jailed for their roles in a 'planned, professional and targeted' vehicles conspiracy across the north of England worth nearly £500,000.

Matthew Clegg and Timothy Bolchover 'worked together as a team' with co-defendant Lewis Hester to steal and 'fence' high value cars and plant machinery from homes and businesses, a court heard.

They were stolen over a nine-month period and were then either used by the defendants or broken down into parts at Hester’s yard and sold to others.

One of the recipients was Great Harwood scrapyard boss Tommy Smith who was jailed in August 2019 for 79 months in connection with a 'major stolen goods operation'.

Prosecutor Alexander Langhorn told Preston Crown Court said the defendants were 'not a direct subsidiary' to gang leader Smith but instead 'operated under Mr Smith's agency and influence which was pervasive throughout the local area'.

The court heard that Clegg, of Beech Close, Rishton, stole 12 vehicles and handled 18 others with a total value of £489,000.

Bolchover, of Lion Street, Church, stole eight vehicles and handled 16 others worth £474,000 while Hester, of Lyndhurst Avenue, Blackburn, stole four vehicles worth £142,000 and handled nine others worth £162,000.

Clegg, Hester and Bolchover pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal and conspiracy to handle stolen goods.

Judge Simon Newell jailed Bolchover for 46 months and sentenced Clegg to 42 months in prison and Hester to 27 months in jail.

A pervert who tried to meet up with a parent to abuse his two daughters was caught after it turned out to be an undercover police officer.

William Gerald Lenehan, from Preston, was in secret online contact with the officer for two months and used secure email accounts based in Russia so he couldn't be traced.

The 'determined and premeditated' 65-year-old also installed special software on his mobile phone making it 'difficult or impossible' to check his browsing history and also had access to the 'dark web'.

Preston Crown Court heard how police officers in Kent launched an investigation in early 2017 to 'identify and investigate individuals arranging to meet and facilitate sex offences with children'.

Prosecutor Mercedes Jabbari said Lenehan made contact with the undercover officer in May 2017 and used the email address name 'Exciting Times'.

Lenehan had email accounts with Russian-based Yandex and Protonmail and Ms Jabbari said they are 'known not to share information with local enforcement agencies'.

Ms Jabbari said between May and July 2017 Lenehan engaged in "explicit conversations concerning the abuse of children" with the officer.

Lenehan sent the officer a number of 'first generation' custom made images of children, including one of an eight-year-old girl holding a placard with the date and the defendant's Kik Messenger username.

Ms Jabbari told the court that it 'indicated the defendant had obtained them from a source not far removed from the original abuser'.

The images were later traced to a man in Torquay who was arrested and convicted, the court heard.

Officers also used Lenehan's internet provider address from Kik Messenger to trace him to an address on Devonshire Place in Preston.

The defendant was away working in France but was arrested at Manchester Airport the next day.

A mobile phone was seized containing 61 indecent images and videos of children, including one category A - the most serious - three category B and 57 category C.

Ms Jabbari said the victims were aged between five and 10 and one of the abuse videos lasted more than five minutes.

Attempts had also been made to delete the images on the phone which had been in the defendant's possession since 2012.

Lenehan, now of Gargrave Road, Skipton, pleaded guilty to encouraging a man to take and send him indecent images of children, distributing indecent images and possessing indecent images.

He was jailed for 31 months, ordered to sign the sex offenders register and was also given an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

An Accrington man has been jailed for his role as part of a armed heist gang responsible for staling more than £90,000.

And a court heard how after every robbery Abubakir Iqbal visited a massage parlour in Bury as 'kind of a reward'.

The 30-year-old - along with partners-in-crime Sajjad Hussain, 28, Anas Khan, 26, and Shazad Mahmood, 26 - carried out 10 raids on cash-in-transit vans across Greater Manchester.

Together, they stole more than £90,000 before they were caught trying to flee their eleventh robbery at a branch of Natwest bank in Halifax.

One of the crooks, Hussain led a double life while working full-time at a bank call centre - and told bosses his grandmother had died to get the day off to help complete another heist.

He also visited the Bury massage parlour with Iqbal.

Khan and Iqbal were both locked up for 21 years each, Hussain for 18 years and Mahmood for 17 years.

A heroin dealer who was found in possession of two 'torch Tasers' during a drugs raid by police has been jailed.

Joshua John George Cooney was arrested at an address on Evington in Skelmersdale and when officers searched the property they found a torch marked 'police'.

However the device turned out to be a disguised 'firearm Taser which was in a working condition', a court heard.

Another similar device was recovered from the kitchen along with an extendable baton.

Prosecutor David Clarke told Preston Crown Court: "What seems to be borne out by the papers is that clearly some serious incident had taken place involving the defendant's brother who apparently had been stabbed.

"Items were then brought round and were there perhaps to help for potential self-defensive purposes."

The court heard that a more detailed search of the house uncovered 'three clear bags of brown powder' which turned out to be heroin.

A quantity of ketamine and two mobile phones with drug-related messages were also seized.

Mr Clarke said Cooney was dealing drugs on a 'fairly low-level basis' and an example of one of the messages from September 2018 said "please keep 4w and 2 choc".

Cooney pleaded guilty to possessing two prohibited weapons, possessing heroin with intent to supply, possessing heroin and a Bail Act offence.

The 25-year-old, of Amity Street, Liverpool, was jailed for a total of three years and three months.

An ‘out of control’ man who threatened his elderly mother with an axe has been jailed.

Duncan Newbigging was heard screaming and shouting in the kitchen of their shared home on Turnpike, Newchurch, in the early hours of December 3, a court heard.

When the victim Susannah Newbigging tried to calm him down he held up an axe and said ‘get away from me or else’ and also told her to ‘f*** off’.

Prosecutor Tracy Yates told Blackburn Magistrates Court she returned to her bedroom but he continued shouting, screaming and banging for several hours and was in a ‘complete rage’.

At 9.30am the defendant left the house and Mrs Newbigging, 75, saw the 30cm ‘old fashioned axe’ on the kitchen worktop. She quickly locked and bolted the door before calling 999.

When Newbigging, 44, was arrested he was found with a small knife in his trouser pocket.

Referring to a victim impact statement, Ms Yates told the court: “[Mrs Newbigging] said Duncan is not well and is out of control. She fears for her life and having him living with her.

“She said she can’t cope with the stress anymore and she is struggling to care for herself.

“She said even so, regardless of her age, any person would be scared of him. He is unpredictable and his rages are completely unprovoked.

“She says he cannot live with her anymore. She is terrified and is no longer capable of giving him the help he needs. He needs help. He is dangerous.”

Newbigging, of Turnpike, pleaded guilty to possessing a knife in a public place and common assault.

He was jailed for six months and given an indefinite restraining order against his mother and banned from going within 100m of her home.

An 82-year-old woman was forced to use a food bank after she was befriended by a tradesman who stole her life savings.

Father-of-eight Darrell Boast, 50, helped himself to £64,000 from the widow’s bank accounts after earning her trust working as a joiner at her home in Clitheroe.

Preston Crown Court heard Boast, who works as a handyman for the Wilpshire Methodist Church, stole the money to pay for his gambling addiction.

He has now been jailed for 12 months after the court heard of the humiliation and distress caused to his victim.

In April 2017 Boast and the woman struck up a friendship when he began working on her house and he started helping her with household tasks.

The pensioner had mobility problems but tried to avoid relying on her family as she enjoyed her independence, the court heard.

When Boast - who she had trusted with her bank cards and PIN numbers - told her he was struggling to pay his bills, the pensioner agreed to help.

But he went on to plunder her accounts, stealing £46,957.40 from her Lloyds account, £16,177.24 from her Nationwide account and £1,238.98 from a credit card.

In March 2018, Boast’s partner - who is standing by him - contacted the police, telling them she believed he had defrauded the woman of around £35,000.

On May 4, officers searched his home in Somerset Avenue, Wilpshire, and found bank cards and cheques in the woman’s name,

When police spoke to the pensioner she said she had lent Boast money to pay off debts, but he had gone on to take more from her without her permission.

Large sums of cash had been withdrawn over the counter or transferred from the victim’s ISA to Boast’s personal account, Preston Crown Court heard.

Judge Simon Newell jailed Boast for 12 months and ordered him to pay a victim surcharge.

A man who bought a £5 stun gun to protect his girlfriend, who was being harassed on her way home from work, has been jailed.

Kamin Blonski, 22, had no idea the weapon, disguised as a torch, was a prohibited weapon, when he purchased it from the website wish.com.

Judge Simon Medland QC, sentencing, said the exceptional circumstances of the case allowed him to draw back from imposing the statutory minimum term of five years.

However he jailed Blonski, of Queensgate, Nelson, for 11 months saying possession of the weapon was so serious it must be marked by an immediate jail term.

Blonksi wept in the dock and his partner sobbed from the public gallery as Preston Crown Court heard how a sentence of 12 months or longer would see the Polish national deported.

Laura Barbour, defending, said her client had come to England at the age of 12 and had completed his education and worked full time since leaving school, paying taxes and contributing to society.

The judge said he took into account the personal consequences of a custodial sentence, his guilty plea and his good character when handing down the sentence.

He ordered forfeiture and destruction of the stun gun and ordered Blonski to pay a statutory surcharge.

Two men who sparked a two hour armed siege at a house in Chorley have been jailed.

Armed police with shields surrounded the house in Steeley Lane on the morning of July 22 last year during the stand-off with Adam Clarke, 29, and Aiden Dewhurst, 23.

Preston Crown Court heard the men had gone to the house at 7am looking for a teenager who was said to have made unkind comments about Clarke’s sister - who is disabled and also lives at the address.

Clarke, of no fixed address, was armed with a pair of scissors and Dewhurst, of Welsby Road, Leyland, had a battery in a sock which he used as a weapon.

Clarke banged on the door and shouted to the householder Donna Hall to get her son as Dewhurst wanted a one-to-one with him.

Ms Hall came out of the property brandishing a stick at the men and Dewhurst swung the improvised weapon, hitting her twice to the head.

Ms Hall’s partner Kevin Callon then went outside and was also struck with the battery.

The couple went inside and sat with their backs to the front door as Clarke and Dewhurst kicked at it but when police arrived, the men were inside the property.

Clarke’s sister had locked herself in the bathroom.

Both men were aggressive with officers - Dewhurst picking up a knife and Clarke throwing glasses at the police outside.

Officers with shields surrounded the building as the pair moved around the building, telling each other to harm the officers as they became increasingly aggressive, punching windows and brandishing knives. They claimed to have access to guns and said they would shoot the officers.

The siege came to an end after two hours when Clarke jumped out of a window and was tasered as he tried to run down the side of the house. Dewhurst tried to escape through the bathroom window but was also arrested.

The men were taken into custody where Clarke went on to assault the custody sergeant, gouging at his eye and punching him, causing swelling and fractured ribs.

Both pleaded guilty to affray and possession of an offensive weapon. Dewhurst also pleaded guilty to breach of a restraining order relating to Ms Clarke and Clarke pleaded guilty to ABH relating to the custody sergeant he injured.

Judge Medland QC jailed Dewhurst for 26 months and 30 days and Clarke for 20 months. He also made a five year restraining order banning the from contacting the householders.

A man caught carrying around £3,500 of high purity cocaine into HMP Lancaster Farms has been jailed for five years and two months.

Stephen Stanley, 58, had gone to visit his son at the prison when he was caught with almost 9g of the class A drug.

Stanley, who walks with a crutch after he was shot last year, claimed the drugs were for his own personal use and he did not know he had them.

He was arrested after three wraps of cocaine with a purity of between 78 - 86% fell out of his trouser leg in the search portal on his way into the prison.

Sold on the street, the drugs would be valued at £700- £900 but their prison value was estimated at £2,800 - £3,600 due to the inflated prices behind bars,

Preston Crown Court heard Stanley has a long standing drug addition and is a heavy cocaine user.

He has convictions for drug possession dating back to the 1980s.

He denied conveying a list A article into prison and did not attend his trial but was convicted in his absence.

Stanley, of Westcott Avenue, Greater Manchester, maintained the drugs were for his personal use but Recorder Philip Parry said given the quantity and purity of the cocaine it was a reasonable inference that he was taking them into prison to be sold on.

Recorder Parry jailed him for five years for conveying a list A article into prison and a further two months for a bail act offence after he failed to appear for his trial.

A Birkdale man has been sentenced to seven years and nine months in prison for the rape of a girl.

Paul Lawrence, 58, of HMP Wymott, was sentenced after pleading guilty to two rape offences.

The sentence will be served consecutively to a six year and nine month sentence Lawrence is already serving in prison for previous sexual offences.Lawrence was arrested in November 2018 following further allegations, and a full investigation was carried out.

An 84-year-old former Boys Brigade leader who sexually abused young boys has been jailed for six-and-a-half years.

William Bissett 'cynically abused' his position of trust at the Church Street Methodist Church group in St Anne's to 'prey upon' five victims over an 11-year period, a court heard.

The pensioner 'groomed' some of the boys by setting up circumstances to take them into the side room of the church and under the pretence of 'smartening them up'.

He also indecently assaulted other boys during weekend trips with the Boys Brigade.

Bissett, of Rossendale Road, St Anne's, was found guilty after a trial at Preston Crown Court of 17 counts of indecent assault on boys under the age of 14.

Powerful victim impact statements read out at court told how the defendant's actions had left a 'profound effect upon them, often for the rest of their lives'.

Judge Robert Altham said Bissett had 'not shown a shred of remorse' and praised the 'contrasting courage of the five complainants'.

Bissett was jailed for a total six-and-a-half years and ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life.

A 'persistently violent criminal' who assaulted a female police officer with a 'flying headbutt' after being arrested for drink and disqualified driving has been jailed.

David Ostafi was stopped in the early hours of August 8 last year on Holland House Road in Walton-le-Dale and officers noticed his 'eyes were glazed and he smelt of intoxicants'.

The father-of-three was held in the cage of a police van as they prepared a roadside breath test when 'from nowhere he launched himself' at the female officer with his head at chest height and knocked her to the floor.

He then punched another male officer in the chest before 'making a run for it through the gap', Preston Crown Court heard.

Ostafi was heard 'roaring like an animal' as police then made 'extensive efforts to detain him'.

When one officer grabbed hold of him the defendant 'started to thrash about with his hands' and broke free before running away again.

A Taser was used to try and incapacitate Ostafi however it was 'insufficient'.

The defendant continued to 'violently resist' by kicking his legs and waving his arms as four officers tried to handcuff him on the ground.

A search of Ostafi's car revealed a metal baseball bat and a large can of pepper spray in the rear footwell of the passenger seat.

When he was searched at the police station a small bag of cocaine was recovered but Ostafi refused to provide a breath test.

In a separate incident Ostafi, of Leicester Road, Blackburn, was caught driving a £48,000 Audi which had been stolen in a house burglary four weeks earlier.

The vehicle had been on false number plates until five days before he was arrested at a BP petrol station on October 1, 2018.

Ostafi pleaded guilty to assaulting two emergency workers, drink driving, driving while disqualified, driving with no insurance, possessing a baseball bat and pepper spray, possessing cocaine, failing to provide a specimen of breath for analysis, handling stolen goods and breaching a court order.

He was jailed for 40 months and disqualified from driving for 39 months.

A 'dominant and bullying' thug who launched a vile campaign of harassment against his 'vulnerable' pregnant partner has been jailed.

William Scott, from Morecambe, was in a 'toxic relationship' with the victim and 'uttered serious threats and used disgusting language' towards her over a two-month period.

Preston Crown Court heard that the 53-year-old made her life 'something of a hell' and he behaved in an 'appalling and completely unacceptable way'.

The harassment happened between October 21 and November 29 last year - just weeks before the victim gave birth.

When interviewed by police about the offences he said it was a 'load of bo***cks'.

In a separate incident, Scott was caught in possession of a 12-inch kitchen knife on Regent Street in Morecambe.

The defendant had contacted police at 3.50am so say he had the knife and was confronted by officers at 4.30am.

Scott was 'staggering in the street with a bottle of spirits in his hand' and told the officer to 'leave him alone'.

He then 'suddenly pulled out a knife and held it under his own throat' before shouting for the police to stay back.

The court heard that when officers withdrew their Tasers he put the knife and bottle on the ground and 'cooperated with the police'.

Scott, of Oxcliffe Road, Morecambe, pleaded guilty to harassment and possessing a bladed article in a public place.

He was jailed for nine months and given a restraining order.

A man has been jailed after breaching a restraining order for the tenth time against the same woman.

Wayne Anyon, 47, is banned from contacting the vulnerable woman after he was convicted of assaulting her in July 2018.

But on December 12 2019 police received a call from neighbours saying there was a row taking place at a flat in Charles Street, Blackpool.

When they arrived they found Anyon and the woman inside - although the woman said she did not want to make a complaint against Anyon.

Anyon told officers he knew he should not be in contact with the woman but they had met and gone back to a friends house and started drinking.

Prosecutors outlined nine previous occasions when Anyon had breached restraining orders which were supposed to protect the woman from him, since 2016.

Anyon, of no fixed address, was jailed for 16 weeks.

A nightmare neighbour from hell who police described as a menace to society has finally been locked up.

Just over one year ago on January 19, an injunction was imposed on Joanne Bailey which prohibited her from engaging in anti-social behaviour likely to create significant risk of harm to others.

The order carried a number of restrictions to prevent the 46-year-old from causing any risk of harassment or distress to neighbours and local residents.

However Bailey, of Low Road, Middleton, caused such a nuisance and distress to fellow neighbours on a number of occasions, she breached the order.

Bailey was jailed nearly a year after the order was made for six months.

A pair of crooks have been jailed for a spate of luxury car thefts across the North West - including Lancaster.

Jamie Ormond, 26, of no fixed address and Liam Greenwood, 29 of St Anne Street, Liverpool, have been put behind bars for a total of 13 years.

The duo broke into five homes in the region while the occupants slept between June 24 and August 12, 2019.

They then took car keys and stole high-powered vehicles.

Liam Greenwood, 29, was jailed for seven years after pleading guilty to conspiracy to burglary at Chester Crown Court on January

Alongside him, Jamie Ormond, 26, was sentenced to six years.

Four men involved in a Preston 'County Lines' drug operation have been give jail sentences totalling more than 15 years.

The group travelled daily from Manchester to Preston delivering heroin and crack cocaine to local drug users.

Officers became aware of the group’s activities and launched Operation New Era.

They conducted a number of searches, executing warrants in the Preston area and seizing drugs.

Abrar Ahmed, 24, of Kingsway, Manchester, Yasir Ali, 22, of Meade Grove, Manchester, Shavon Morrison, 21, of Claremont Road, Manchester and Richard Mushonga 21, of Medway Close, Salford were all arrested and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs.

All four men were sentenced at Preston Crown Court before Judge Robert Altham.

Ahmed was jailed for five years, Ali for four years eight months, and Morrison and Mushonga each sentenced to three years and four months in prison.

A woman has been jailed for more than two years after bombarding Lancashire Police staff with thousands of abusive and threatening messages.

Tracey Partington’s behaviour had a detrimental effect on the force’s ability to respond to genuine emergencies as they were tied up investigating

her false claims, as well as affecting the well-being of staff.

One officer in particular was subjected to more than 1,000 text messages of what were described as vile and disgusting content.

Partington’s campaign of behaviour began in 2017 and she was jailed for four months in 2018 when the messages stopped.

They started again, however, when she was released.

Each contact had to be logged and assessed or deployed to see whether the threat was credible, causing extreme demand and stress in the Force Control Room.

Partington, 41, of Hornby Road, Blackpool, tried to cover her tracks by using different mobile phones to send her vile messages but following enquiries she was arrested in September last year.

She pleaded guilty to harassment – putting a person in fear of violence and breach of restraining order between September and October 2019.

She was sentenced to 27 months in prison.

A jealous thug who bit the nose and thigh of his partner before striking her in the mouth with an empty beer bottle and throwing her down the stairs has been jailed.

Jacob Hough accused the victim, from Leyland, of cheating on him during a drunken argument and pinned her down on the bed at his home in Skelmersdale.

The 24-year-old bit her twice to the leg and she 'screamed' for him to get off.

He then 'bit her nose and held on for five seconds' before throwing her to the floor.

The defendant then grabbed an empty beer bottle and struck her to the mouth in a 'hammer blunt motion' and then pushed her down the stairs.

Another resident at the address heard Hough call her a 'rat' and their child a 'rat'.

The victim was taken to hospital for treatment and told police she had 'never felt more scared in my life'.

She sustained an open wound on her nose, a chipped tooth, cuts to her lip and face, a swollen ankle and bruising to her leg.

Hough, of Kestrel Mews, Ashurst, Skelmersdale, has 28 convictions for 39 offences including an attack on his mother in 2016.

He pleaded guilty to GBH. He was jailed for 27 months and given a five-year restraining order.

A prolific burglar who launched a one-man crime wave against residents in Upholland over a three-month period has been jailed.

The 44-year-old targeted family homes at night while the owners and their children slept and caused 'significant' mental, physical and financial hardship.

Lashley, who has nearly 60 previous convictions for burglary, blamed his latest relapse into drug and alcohol misuse and criminal offending on the sudden death of his mother in May last year.

The defendant committed 10 burglaries or attempted burglaries between May and July and he was only stopped when a group of brave residents apprehended him in a garden.

Police said Lashley, who has 34 convictions for 112 offences, was 'agitated and intoxicated' when they arrested him.

Lashley, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to burglary and attempted burglary and asked for seven other burglary offences to be 'taken into consideration'.

He was jailed for 72 months.

An alcoholic who burgled his own grandmother's house on Christmas Day to feed his 'hopeless' addiction has been jailed.

Kenneth James Smith was spotted by neighbours breaking into the 86-year-old victim's home on Low Mead in Kendal at around 5.20pm.

Police and family members were called to the scene and Smith was found trying to put alcohol into a rucksack.

Smith shouted to the officers "I'm going to f***ing bite your ear off, I'm going to f***ing hurt you".

He then threw kicks and punches in an attempt to avoid arrest and one officer had to spray him with PAVA.

The court heard that Smith then bit the leg of a police officer and caused a 5cm laceration to another officer.

In a victim impact statement the 'elderly and vulnerable' grandmother, who wasn't in the house at the time of the burglary, said she now feels 'very scared both in her home and outside'.

Mr Barr said she used to attend a drop-in club every week for the elderly but 'now feels unable to'.

Smith, of Kendal, pleaded guilty to burglary and two counts of assaulting an emergency worker.

He was jailed for three years and eight months.

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