Drugs driver snared in undercover sting

A DRIVER working for drug dealers operating in Oldham town centre has been jailed for 18 months after a jury found him guilty of being involved in the supply of heroin and cocaine.

Advertising agent Christopher Delaney (33) was caught after an undercover police officer posing as a buyer, got into his Vauxhall Astra car where money was handed over for three wraps.

Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court was told that a “meet” had been arranged by phone, and the officer had been directed to the car park of a disused pub on December 9 last year.

Delaney, of Buckfast Avenue, Alt, is the latest of a string of people involved in peddling hard drugs to be jailed, following the biggest police operation Oldham has ever seen.

More than 20 people have so far been jailed after prosecutions as a result of Operation Rescind. Their combined sentences amount to well over 50 years.

The court had earlier heard that two other men who had been with Delaney in the car last December had already pleaded guilty to supplying Class A drugs.

Christopher Gott (26), of Ashton Road, Hathershaw, was jailed for four years at an earlier hearing, and Andrew Hawes (27), of Broadway Street, Hathershaw, was jailed for five years.

Delaney who had pleaded not guilty to being concerned in the supply of drugs, claimed in court that he had been doing Gott and Hawes a favour, by giving them a lift.

He said he had no idea they were selling drugs, and had not realised a sale was being made in his car.

The court was told that Delaney, who works as a part time DJ in local pubs, supported his mother and a younger brother.

Sentencing him, Judge Jeffrey Lewis told him: “You denied knowing what was going on in your car, but the jury were satisfied you knew full well what was going on.”

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