Builder gets 13 years for £200,000 drugs empire

A SELF-EMPLOYED builder who made almost £200,000 more from his drug-dealing activities than from his legitimate job has been jailed for 13 years.

Jason Killick was found guilty of conspiring to supply cocaine, concealing £197,000 worth of criminal property and money laundering after a two-week trial at Warwick Crown Court earlier this year.

The 44-year-old, of The Paddocks on Warwick Road in Wolston, had admitted further charges of conspiring to supply cannabis grown at addresses in Rugby and Coventry and possessing more than two kilos of amphetamine with intent to supply it prior to his trial.

Brian Wright, 47, of Galloway Mews in Rugby, who stood trial with Killick and was found guilty of supplying cocaine and possessing it with intent to supply, was jailed for three-and-a-half years.

Prosecutor Philip Bradley told the pair's trial a man called John Logue continued to play a leading role in the conspiracy even after he was arrested and remanded in custody in November 2010.

The conspiracy involved the ordering and collection of cocaine from Oldham and Sheffield to be sold on the streets of Rugby.

Between Logue’s arrest and the end of April 2011 there was a great deal of phone contact between another conspirator and Killick, mainly around the dates when consignments of cocaine were being collected.

Logue was also said to be in touch with Killick from his prison cell.

Killick’s declared income as a self-employed builder/handyman was said to have amounted to £89,392 over a period from 2003 to 2012.

But during the period investigated £286,411 went into his bank accounts.

Killick’s 63-year-old mother Susan Southern also stood trial, but was found not guilty of being involved in his money laundering activities. She insisted she believed money he paid into her account had come from him being paid in cash for work he did.

Brian Wright

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