A pensioner with a lengthy and successful career retired and turned to a life of crime, a court has heard. Arthur Hughes, 74, had enjoyed a successful career as a builder before he began dealing heroin as a post-retirement side hustle.
However, his illegal activities caught up with him when police raided his Gwynedd home on August 8 last year. Officers discovered 48 wraps of heroin with a street value of up to £33,600, prosecutor Ben Stanley told Caernarfon Crown Court.
Mr Stanley said: "It was deemed to be a typical strength (16%) for diamorphine (heroin), sold on the street in the north west." Cutting agents were also found, along with £15,020 in cash.
Hughes was interviewed by police but denied keeping illegal drugs at the property. He was released on bail, but then stopped and searched on October 15. He was found with a mobile phone showing movement around the north west of Wales, the court heard.
Forensic tests showed his DNA was also on the drugs, leading to a further arrest on January 7 this year. Mr Stanley said cash of just under £5,000 was found in his living room. Hughes again denied being a drug dealer in police interviews.
Hughes, of Maes Bleddyn, Rachub, near Bangor, admitted one charge of intent to supply a class A drug and two charges of possessing criminal property.
Defending, Richard Edwards said his client had entered an early guilty plea and described him as a retired builder with "a lengthy successful employment history." The court also heard there had been no offending since 2019, and Hughes was in his 70s with poor health and caring responsibilities.
Hughes has 17 convictions for 39 offences. He received a suspended sentence for his only previous drug-related offence in 2019.
Sentencing Hughes to three years and two months in jail, Judge Simon Mills said: "It is rare to see a man of your age involving yourself in this sort of behaviour." The judge branded the illegal selling of drugs "evil."
Hughes will serve up to half his sentence in prison and the rest on licence. There will also be a Proceeds of Crime Act investigation, with a hearing at a later date.
