Pages Walk jeweller jailed for Newcomen Street drugs plot

Four men were sentenced at Inner London Crown Court on Friday after the police recovered nearly £750,000 in cash from a gang and took out an amphetamine factory.

38-year-old jeweller Christopher O'Shea of Guinness Square, Pages Walk, Bermondsey, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder criminal proceeds and was sentenced to two and a half years.

Unemployed Wayne Kelly of East Sussex was sentenced to three years for the same offence, whilst boxer Mark Stupple of Thamesmead was jailed for two and a half years.

In addition to a laundering charge Mark Whittington of Dulwich also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply amphetamine. He received eight years for the drug charge and a further four to be served concurrently for the laundering charge.

On Thursday 21 September 2006 at about 11.25am police observed Kelly, Whittington, O'Shea and Stupple standing together beside a Silver Audi in Newcomen Street SE1. Stupple left the group and walked into the grounds of Guy's Hospital before returning shortly after in a taxi.

While he was gone Kelly and Whittington took two bags from the boot of the Audi and gave them to O'Shea before he and Stupple left in the taxi. Kelly and Whittington then drove off in the Audi shortly after.

Officers followed the taxi and stopped it on Blackfriars Bridge and the two bags were removed and found to contain approximately £220,000.

The operation continued as the Audi was followed back to Whittington's home address, where officers watched as he and Kelly went inside. At 2.40pm both left and as they drove away they were stopped and arrested.

Officers went to Stonehills Court and found Bloomfield inside.

A search found elastic bands were scattered all over a bedroom floor, along with an identical holdall to one given to Stupple and O'Shea which contained a large quantity of cash. The cupboards in the room had holdall after holdall filled with currency. On the shelf of one of the cupboards, in open view, was a quantity of 500 Euro banknotes (estimated to be in excess of E150,000).

Also found in a cupboard in this bedroom was a cash counting machine. Further quantities of cash was found in the main bedroom and the living room – in total approximately £540,000 in sterling and euros were found.

In the kitchen a blender containing traces of white powder was found and in a locked garage at the rear of the premises a drug-mixing factory, with scales, blenders, mixing agents, industrial-sized containers and other drug dealing paraphernalia was found. Tests on the powder found traces of amphetamine .

Police say that Investigations into Whittington found that in he had previously bought 150 kilograms of an agent used to cut with amphetamine. This amount of cutting agent would be enough to produce 175 kilos of amphetamine with a street value of £1.75 million.