Canterbury Crown Court Sentencing Results

On March 18, 2025, Gary King attempted to enter vehicles and homes in Canterbury, including trying handles on Beaconsfield Road and entering a property on Shaftesbury Avenue where he stole an Apple Watch after being spotted by a resident. In another incident that night on Beaconsfield Road, he was confronted inside a bedroom but fled empty-handed. He was identified via CCTV, added to the Kent Police most wanted list, and arrested on April 15, 2025, at Holyhead Port while trying to board a ferry to Ireland.

Ozioma Egbujor was involved in the supply of class A substances in the Medway towns between February and March 2025. Police were alerted to suspicious behaviour on March 3 at an address in Magpie Hall Road, where they found him with 40 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine in his trouser pocket, along with cash and two mobile phones. A further search recovered 100 more wraps concealed on his person.

Sian Banks, 25, from Liverpool, was involved in smuggling cocaine and ketamine into the UK, with her DNA found on drug packaging. She travelled between Liverpool and Europe to support Burton, smuggled drugs in her luggage through Liverpool John Lennon Airport, and allowed her bank accounts to receive money for his activities. She was linked to the drug importations seized on July 3, 2022.

Lee Horton, 45, formerly of St George’s Avenue, Sheerness, targeted a convenience store in Westgate, Canterbury on the evening of January 26, 2024. Staff spotted him leaving the shop without paying for chocolate. When followed outside and asked to return the item, he became abusive, shouted racist comments, and left the area. Officers were called just after 6pm to St Dunstan’s Street. An investigation led to his interview under caution and charges. He also admitted to multiple other thefts and a burglary.

Jacob Bean, residing in Chartham near Canterbury, groomed a 10-year-old girl via Snapchat and WhatsApp, sending her child abuse videos and photos of his penis, and encouraging her to perform sex acts on herself. This occurred prior to his sentencing, and at the time, he was under investigation for grooming three other underage girls and making indecent images. On release, he would have been subject to indefinite sex offender notification requirements and a sexual harm prevention order.

Starting in 2022, Yalcin acted inappropriately towards a teenage girl, escalating to severe sexual assaults over and under clothing on multiple occasions, attempting to buy silence with clothes and money. Reported end of 2023.

On July 25, 2023, at 9.30pm on Station Road in Margate, Julian Martinez approached a victim driving away from the area whilst transporting items related to a jewellery business. He had been following them in a Mercedes parked nearby. After failing to enter the vehicle, he broke a window and snatched a bag from inside. The driver escaped, and a member of the public intervened, wrestling the bag back and returning it to the victim. Martinez fled in the Mercedes. He was identified through police enquiries, arrested on March 30, 2024, and charged the next day.

Qari Sher Mohammad, 61, from Woodford Road, Forest Gate, London, sexually assaulted four children over nearly a decade while acting as an imam at a mosque in Thorold Road, Gillingham, between March 2014 and December 2023. Initial concerns raised in 2018, with further assaults reported in 2022-2023. One victim, now an adult, supported prosecution.

Joel Loba, 27, from Westbrook Road, Margate, was arrested on June 25, 2024, at a property where officers seized three phones, £1,360 cash, and class A drugs. Investigations linked three phone numbers used for bulk marketing to drug users in Margate to Loba, confirming his role in supplying crack cocaine and heroin.

Dr Gregory Manson, of Tower Way, Canterbury, conducted inappropriate and unnecessary intimate examinations on several male patients at Cossington House Surgery in Canterbury. Complaints led to an investigation starting in 2017, and he was arrested on February 21, 2018. He was charged with 24 offences and convicted of 14 counts of sexual assault and four counts of indecent assault.

Harrison Lawrence Van-Pooss ambushed Claire Knights, 54, while she was walking her dog near Minnis Bay on August 23, 2023. He sexually assaulted her, beat her, and stomped on her head, causing fractures and brain damage. He then hid her body in a dyke, where it was discovered two days later. Prior to this, he had pleaded guilty to upskirting another woman at his workplace the day before the murder.

Rafal Czajka, a 39-year-old Polish national and lorry driver, attempted to smuggle 45 kilos of cocaine, worth an estimated £2.1 million at street level, into the UK. The drugs were hidden in six metal box sections built into the bulkhead of his trailer, covered by a wooden board secured with rivets. The lorry was stopped and searched by Border Force officers at the port of Dover on November 16, 2021. It also carried a legitimate load of ventilation blower parts from the Netherlands destined for Basingstoke, Hampshire. A rivet gun and pop rivets were found in the cab.

Daniel Whereatt, 48, of Seymour Road, Bristol, was stopped at Dover’s Eastern Docks on March 18, 2019, as he returned to the UK from Amsterdam. He claimed to have been on a day trip to Dunkirk, but phone analysis confirmed he was in Amsterdam picking up heroin. Border Force officers searched his car after noticing a strong smell of fuel and found 18 tape-wrapped packages submerged in the fuel sender tanks, containing 6kg of heroin worth £800,000 and 2kg of cutting agents (paracetamol and caffeine). His DNA was on a screwdriver and metal file near the concealment area. The vehicle was insured for only two days, believed to be solely for the drug importation.

Ross Patrick Deffley, 26, of Solihull, West Midlands, attempted to smuggle 183kg of heroin and cocaine, valued at £16.5 million, hidden inside canisters of nitrous oxide within catering supplies. He was stopped at the Dover border on September 21 while driving a van. Border Force officers found the drugs concealed in the boxes, along with an extendable baton in the cab. His fingerprints and DNA were on packages containing 97kg of heroin and 86kg of cocaine. Deffley claimed the packages were for the catering industry but they were destined for a residential address he could access. He had set up companies to transport the nitrous oxide canisters used for smuggling.

Jon Pughe, 41, of Clifftown Gardens, Herne Bay, Kent, entered a Post Office in Margate Road, Margate, on 12 February 2022, wearing a balaclava and holding a crowbar. He hit a female staff member in the face, stole a large amount of cash from the till, and fled in a white Renault van. He was later arrested in Herne Bay town centre after police linked him via CCTV footage showing a tear in his jeans matching those he was wearing.