Promising East Yorkshire engineer jailed for drug dealing

Danielle Stafford denied knowledge of drugs stashed around her home. Credit: MEN Media

A "promising" engineer who dealt class A drugs to fund a lavish jet-setting lifestyle has been jailed.

University of Hull graduate Danielle Stafford sold heroin, crack cocaine and cannabis from her home in Cottingham, East Yorkshire.

The 29-year-old, of Hallgate, Cottingham, bought a second house and luxuries including watches and Louis Vuitton handbags using cash from she made.

She was only stopped by chance when police spotted her speeding.

While under arrest, her phone rang 30 times and she received numerous messages relating to drugs. Police later found £26,917 cash stashed in her home and drugs with a street value of £33,600.

Stafford denied knowledge of 270 wraps of crack cocaine and 205 wraps of heroin hidden inside a glass jar behind a bag of coal bricks in a coal bunker in the rear garden.

Hull Crown Court heard how Stafford tried to claim she was the victim of a Liverpool-based drug dealer and that the expensive items she had accrued were not designer but fake.

The judge said 'you have some talent and it's a great shame that you didn't deploy that talent in a more law-abiding way.' Credit: MEN Media

She changed her original plea to admit three offences between October 2017 and May 2020 of supplying heroin, crack cocaine and cannabis.

Stafford also admitted another offence of possessing cash as criminal property.Judge Mark Bury told Stafford: "You are well educated. You are a promising engineer. Your life went out of control some time in 2017 when you started dealing cannabis....You have some talent and it's a great shame that you didn't deploy that talent in a more law-abiding way because I am sure you have something to offer."On the expensive goods she owned, he added: "I am not prepared to accept that it (designer items) was fake. It shows that you were able to earn very good money from this operation."Stafford claimed that her family was in the habit of keeping large amounts of cash at home and that she was entrusted to look after it for family because she was seen as a "responsible" person.

The judge told her: "You didn't plead guilty until the very last minute. The evidence was strong, if not overwhelming. The jury was sworn and only during the opening did you change your pleas."

Stafford was jailed for seven-and-a-half years.

Humberside Police said: "Her lifestyle and drug dealing activity impacted on her neighbours and community and knowing she is now behind bars... will reassure the people that she will no longer be able to blight their lives."

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