Leeds Crown Court Sentencing Results

Richard Whitaker, a former Leeds teacher, admitted to taking 40 Category C images and downloading 19 Category A, 12 Category B, and 74 Category C indecent images of children. He was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court on Wednesday after pleading guilty.

Ricky Morrell continued to send threatening and abusive messages to his ex-partner just weeks after receiving a suspended sentence for stalking her.

Tyler Foley, 29, assisted the leader of the drug gang, Christopher Hargreaves, in evading police. During Hargreaves’ arrest at a hotel, he threw a phone out of the window; the phone showed Foley had been advising him. The gang supplied cocaine and cannabis across Leeds from a fortified safehouse on Rathmell Road, Halton Moor, which had weapons and security gates.

Tyrone Sealey was caught offering cocaine to an undercover officer in Leeds city centre, then moved his illegal trade to northern Scotland. The offending dated back to 26 February 2022.

Thomas Lock subjected his girlfriend to a five-month abusive relationship marked by extreme paranoia, during which he gave her five black eyes.

Between June 2015 and April 2017, Thomas Todd managed businesses operating from the former Bowman’s Site in Lincolnshire near the A52, storing materials illegally, failing to have a fire prevention plan, stacking waste too high and close together creating fire risk, leading to health risks from mice and flies. Site permit suspended multiple times. Judge noted fire safeguards non-existent and flagrantly breached environmental law.

Stuart Penney was involved in seven attacks on cash machines in Darlington, Bradford, Keighley and Huddersfield, as well as two burglaries where vehicles were stolen for use in the crimes. The attacks between October 2017 and February 2018 involved pumping gases into the machines to cause explosions, resulting in thousands of pounds of damage and more than £300,000 stolen.

Tejpal Sagoo's company, Robin Hood Group Ltd, controlled the operation at the site on Duncombe Road, Bradford, where over 275 tonnes of mixed household, commercial and industrial waste were illegally stored between January and March 2017. Despite claims of intending to ship it abroad to burn as fuel, the vast majority remained on site. Inspections by Environment Agency officers started in March 2017 following a report from Bradford Council. Officers instructed no more waste to be brought in and for it to be legitimately disposed of.

Terry Soloman Dugbo, 48, from Leeds, failed to pay Proceeds of Crime confiscation orders totalling over £1.3 million from a 2019 fraud case (£2.2 million defrauded from electrical waste recycling industry), £79,000 from a 2011 Environment Agency prosecution for exporting hazardous waste to Nigeria, and £17,000 from a 2015 VAT fraud, despite court orders. Only approximately £46,000 paid towards earlier orders. HHJ Jameson QC ruled no realistic prospect of payment. Sentences imposed consecutively on top of current 7 years 6 months for 2016 conviction (conspiracy to defraud, acting as disqualified director, breaching environmental permit via falsified paperwork for TLC Recycling LTD claiming recycling of 19,500 tonnes non-existent waste).

Tanyaradzwa Kariwo overtook on a blind bend at speed and caused a four-car pile-up in Garforth on November 29, 2023, from which firefighters had to cut motorists free.

Taqi Mohammed admitted three counts of downloading indecent images ranging from category A, the most serious, to categories B and C. He had previously been given a chance by the courts but began downloading indecent images again weeks later.

Steven Chadwick, a former Scout Master, abused two young boys in the late 1980s. He used his positions in the Scouts and a local church youth club to befriend one boy's family and groom him before the abuse took place. One survivor described waking up to images of the abuse nearly 40 years later and suffering anxiety, depression and self-destructive behaviour as a result.

He tried to groom a child on Facebook. A pre-sentence report found he still denies a sexual attraction to children.

Part of Operation Tourway investigation into child sexual abuse in Kirklees between 1999 and 2012, where eight young girls were victims of rape, sexual abuse, and trafficking.

Part of an Albanian gang that ran five commercial cannabis farms across West Yorkshire between 2024 and 2025, growing cannabis with a street value of more than £3m. In contact with property owners. Sites included 192 Alverthorpe Road, Wakefield (3 Oct 2024); Newgate House, Pontefract (8 Oct 2024); 17a Wakefield Commercial Park, Horbury (19 Feb); Unit 8 Beckbridge Industrial Estate, Normanton (19 Mar); former social club Moldgreen Top, Huddersfield (9 Apr 2024).

Wieslaw Michniewicz was a leading member of a Leeds-based trafficking ring that recruited women, mainly from Poland, by offering fake jobs as childminders, bar staff or shop assistants. The women were instead forced into prostitution, working up to 20 hours a day, seven days a week, and had to hand over all their earnings. He fled before trial but was extradited and kept in custody until trial.

Cameron Boylan drove a Nissan X-Trail that picked up the main defendant after a fatal stabbing in Huddersfield. He was subsequently arrested and charged with assisting an offender, and received a suspended prison sentence.