ANOTHER drug runner busted as part of a large-scale police operation has been sentenced at Bradford Crown Court.
In October 2023, Thomas Addyman, 28, of Greystone Drive, Keighley, sold cocaine to an undercover officer working as part of a crackdown known as Operation Saintpond, which was launched to directly tackle organised criminality in the Keighley area.
The following April, he was caught with the drug during a police raid on his home.
An 18-month joint operation between West Yorkshire Police, North Yorkshire Police, and the Regional Organised Crime Unit, Saintpond focused on the dismantling of drugs linked to county lines in Keighley and across the border in Skipton by targeting leaders of Class A drug supply in the area.
The modus operandi was consistent: police officers, working undercover, infiltrated drug groups and posed as users to buy illicit drugs from local dealers in the Keighley area by calling "ring and buy" drugs lines.
As of December last year, more than 30 people had been convicted and given more than 128 years in prison.
Addyman is the latest in a long line to go through the court system.
At Bradford Crown Court, Ms Recorder Ella Anderson told him: "In around 2023/24, the police were involved in an operation relating to the supply of Class A drugs in the Keighley area.
"As part of that operation, a number of undercover officers posed as drug users and were supplied by various individuals.
"You were involved in that supply in relation to one of three [drug] lines investigated.
"On October 20, you supplied an undercover officer with three wraps of cocaine.
"Some months later, on April 17, police attended your address and seized 68g of Class A drugs with a street value of around £1,340 along with £1,000 in cash, digital scales, and some Ziploc bags."
Recorder Anderson added: "It is plain that you played an operational function, and that you had some awareness and understanding of the scale of that operation as demonstrated by what was found at your property.
"I am satisfied that this was street dealing."
Addyman later pleaded guilty to supply, and to possession with intent to supply.
The court heard that Addyman had no previous convictions, had not offended since, and represented a low risk of harm and re-offending.
There were no aggravating features in his case, which assisted in persuading Recorder Anderson to impose a two-year sentence of imprisonment suspended for two years.
He was ordered to carry out 240 hours of unpaid work.
Recorder Anderson added: "You must, of course, be punished for the role you have played in this offending.
"I have taken into account that an immediate sentence of just over two years would punish you but with the early release provisions you would serve perhaps a third of that.
"The purposes of sentence are better achieved by the imposition of a suspended sentence order.
"Please be clear, Mr Addyman: this is a prison sentence that I impose today, but you do not have to serve it immediately.
"If you breach the terms of this order … Probation can bring the matter back to court."
Two other people involved in the same operation as drug runners were previously sentenced.
Addyman was also described as a runner.
Aiden Kellett, 33, of Ingrow Mill, Ingrow Lane, Keighley, received three years’ imprisonment in March last year.
He was described in court as "a trusted runner" for a drugs line that users would call to order drugs, primarily crack cocaine.
Sentencing Kellett, His Honour Judge Colin Burn told him: "You are the latest in a rather depressingly long line of people who have been entrapped in that way.
"It just demonstrates what a significant problem, certainly as of the middle of 2023, that Keighley had in relation to supply of Class A drugs.
"You played quite a notable part in adding to that damage.
"If you were a foot soldier, then you were an experienced one.
"You were completely involved in the supply chain."
He described the drug problem in Keighley as "a crisis" and crack cocaine as a "particularly nefarious" drug.
Lisa Burr, 52, of Highfield Lane, Keighley, who had pleaded guilty to supplying crack cocaine on October 10, 2023, was handed two years imprisonment suspended for two years plus 25 rehabilitation activity requirement days to address her substance misuse and a six-month drug rehabilitation programme.
