Maidstone Crown Court Sentencing Results

Abey Smith, trading as Roof Seal and Home Improvements, tricked a retired resident of Teynham into spending over £100,000 on unnecessary and substandard home repairs starting in April 2016. He began by cleaning guttering for £45, then repeatedly lied about further work needed, such as painting roof tiles to simulate replacement, without providing estimates, invoices or paperwork. He falsely claimed the costs could be reclaimed via insurance. The victim stopped payments in February 2017 after bank concerns led to police involvement. An expert assessed the work as unnecessary and worth no more than £3,300 total. Smith was arrested on 10 May 2017.

Aaron Clarke, responsible for the 'Koby' county line, sold heroin and crack cocaine in Medway. He was arrested in Bedfordshire on 24 May 2022 after a previous arrest in August 2021 where a phone containing drug-related messages was seized. Another phone with similar evidence was seized in the second arrest.

Aaron Leacock, Warren Roache and Sean Lee conspired to commit fraud by false representation, targeting 47 elderly victims (aged 70 or over) across Kent, Essex, Hertfordshire, Hampshire, south London and Northamptonshire. Victims were phoned from burner phones by someone pretending to be from their bank, asked security questions, and told a courier would collect their card due to an issue. Cards were collected and used by Roache and Lee to withdraw cash or buy goods near victims' homes. Leacock made the calls from an office in Purley High Street, South Croydon. Total stolen: £60,000.

Abdul Dahir, a 29-year-old drug dealer from Gillingham, was caught during a planned police raid at a St Andrews Road address on 20 March 2019. Co-defendant Benedict Erskine threw a novelty tomato soup tin containing 42 grams of crack cocaine and 50 grams of heroin out of a bedroom window before jumping out himself. About 100 packets and 50 capsules of class A drugs were recovered outside, along with cash, mobile phones, and dealing paraphernalia. The street value of the drugs exceeded £10,600. Dahir was found hiding in the same bedroom and later denied charges of possession with intent to supply class A drugs. He was convicted after a trial and sentenced to 7½ years in prison.

Police found 12 bags of cannabis inside ABZ BBQ Kitchen on Batchelor Street. At two Charles Street homes nearby, officers seized £15,000 in cash and 139 grams of cannabis and cocaine. A safe containing over £45,000 was discovered during a raid on 18 January 2016. Abdul Hakim was part of a drug dealing racket supplying cannabis and cocaine. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cannabis, involvement in cannabis production, and money laundering. He was sentenced to two years imprisonment on 5 December 2017. At Maidstone Crown Court on 12 May 2018, a Proceeds of Crime Act payback order was made, requiring him to forfeit £20,340 of his ill-gotten gains.

Police found 12 bags of cannabis inside ABZ BBQ Kitchen on Batchelor Street. At two Charles Street homes nearby, officers seized £15,000 in cash and 139 grams of cannabis and cocaine. A safe containing over £45,000 was discovered during a raid on 18 January 2016. Abdul Halim was part of a drug dealing racket supplying cannabis and cocaine. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cannabis, involvement in cannabis production, and money laundering. He was sentenced to two years imprisonment on 5 December 2017. At Maidstone Crown Court on 12 May 2018, a Proceeds of Crime Act payback order was made, requiring him to forfeit £20,340 of his ill-gotten gains.

Alex Underwood operated as a drug dealer in the Tunbridge Wells area, sending almost 10,000 drugs supply messages from his phone in three months between the end of September 2023 and early January 2024 to more than 150 contacts. His network was dismantled following intelligence-led patrols. On 5 March 2024, he was stopped in Leigh near Tonbridge while walking to his VW Passat, where police seized a stab vest, scales, multiple deal bags, and two mobile handsets matched to active supply lines.

On 26 September 2019, officers spotted Alfred Qinami driving a BMW on St John's Road in Tunbridge Wells. He was pulled over and searched, revealing 27 wraps of cocaine hidden in a cigarette packet, £300 cash, and two mobile phones with texts related to drug deals. He was charged with possessing cocaine with intent to supply.

Alison Mackinnon, aged 53, of Uplands Road, Romford, Essex, marketed cocaine and amphetamine through mobile phone messages directed by Billy Maidment. On 25 February 2020, she was arrested by plain clothes officers in Tonbridge Road, Hildenborough, after an exchange with Maidment. She was found in possession of a plastic bag containing twenty wraps of cocaine, with quantities of amphetamine located in her vehicle. Her phone contained messages from Maidment directing her to locations to deliver drugs.

On 17 April 2022, constables from Tonbridge community policing team stopped a Fiat Punto driven by Aloisios Varthalitis in Trench Road. Suspecting drug supply involvement, they searched the vehicle and found a magnetic box under the driver’s side door containing nine bags of cocaine. Officers also seized £320 in cash and two mobile phones. A search of his home on Grosvenor Road, Tunbridge Wells, recovered another magnetic box with a bag of cocaine. The seized drugs had an estimated street value of £400. The phones contained multiple text messages relating to drug supply in Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge.

Amir Manouchehri was part of a criminal gang responsible for importing and distributing at least 1.4 tonnes of cocaine from Central America concealed in bananas between March and December 2021. The group used an encrypted messaging app with pseudonyms to arrange movements of 30-100kg at a time using hire vans. Drugs were smuggled into Kent via shipping containers at the Port of Sheerness, including over a tonne from Costa Rica, extracted and distributed from a yard in Longfield.

Amran Hussain, a former Labour Party parliamentary candidate, submitted 2,071 job applications to NHS trusts and public authorities between July 2014 and September 2022. He used fake master's degrees purportedly from the University of Oxford and Birkbeck, University of London, along with fabricated professional memberships, to secure 13 senior non-clinical management posts. He then claimed sick leave for prolonged periods, spending 1,332 days on paid absence out of 1,902 days of employment. His fraud was uncovered after a pre-employment check found no record of a claimed former NHS role.

On 16 April 2019, plainclothes officers spotted Andrew Bryant-Bell emerging from an alley on St Peter Street, Maidstone, where known drug users were loitering. He got into a car and was arrested, with four mobile phones and £160 in cash seized. One phone contained incriminating messages about drug dealing. After being remanded in custody, he eventually handed over a hidden bag containing 35 deals of heroin and 48 wraps of crack cocaine, worth around £820 on the streets. He pleaded guilty at Maidstone Crown Court on 15 May and was sentenced on 9 July to three years and four months in prison.

On 29 August 2019, officers from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate raided a business on Lower Road, East Farleigh, Maidstone. The only person present, Andrew Mackie, directed them to a cupboard under the stairs where three sealed parcels and six grip-seal bags containing a total of 5.3 kg of cocaine were found, together with digital scales, gloves and empty plastic bags. Laboratory tests showed the cocaine was 80–100% pure, with an estimated street value of £1 million.

Part of a conspiracy to produce and supply cannabis on a large scale, estimated value over £1 million, operating farms in Ashford, Canvey Island and Hertfordshire between August 2019 and August 2020. Completed building work to convert a disused warehouse in rural Hertfordshire into a cannabis factory. 18 vials of cocaine and over £3,000 cash found at linked address in Bristol.

On 13 December 2017, police visited a flat in Boundary Road, Chatham, during a routine check and found Caleb Umeniyora and Tristan Sotange acting suspiciously. They were arrested on drug charges. Police discovered 43 wraps of heroin and 35 wraps of crack cocaine with a street value of £780 to £1,560. Videos on their phones captured them packing the drugs for sale and rapping about their drug dealing.