Halsall football coach jailed for 14 years for selling class A and B drugs on Encrochat

A kids' football coach has been unmasked as a "wholesale" heroin and cocaine trafficker after being caught speeding in his Audi.

Connor Roberts, a new dad and a respected player and trainer for several amateur teams in the Merseyside area, secretly sold large amounts of class A and B drugs over encrypted communications platform EncroChat.

He used the platform, thinking he was "invincible" and undetectable - but after bragging about the car he drove and the speeding fines he had picked up police were able to link him to his handle.

He admitted conspiracy to supply heroin, cocaine, ketamine and cannabis.

Roberts was jailed for 14 years, with supporters in the public gallery tearfully waving to him in the dock and saying "love you" as he was led down to the cells.

Liverpool Crown Court heard on Tuesday 12 September the 30-year-old was identified as the user of the Encro handle "GinCleaner" after the network was infiltrated by law enforcement authorities in 2020.

Henry Riding, prosecuting, described how messages uncovered during the hack showed that Roberts, of New Street in Halsall, had been involved in discussions concerning the supply of 40.5kg of cocaine, 6kg of heroin, 19kg of ketamine and 19kg of cannabis as well as handling cash totalling £1.3m.

Detectives were able to link him to the username in part from a reference to a previous spell he had spent behind bars, having served 21 months for possession of cocaine with intent to supply in 2014.

Other conspirators were meanwhile found to have referred to GinCleaner as "Robo", while the defendant told others how he drove a grey Audi A3 - a 17-plate car which he was behind the wheel of when it was later pulled over by police in July 2020.

In one conversation, the operator of the handle told "ApeChest" that his vehicle was "up at me mum's in Ormskirk" - the area where Roberts' mum lived.

Crucially, he also sent "JuicyHyena" a letter he had received in the post from Avon and Somerset Police after being caught speeding on the M4.

Roberts would later use his Encro phone to tell "Rodekerel" that he had already amassed six penalty points on his driving licence.

Checks subsequently revealed he was fined and handed six points in October 2019 for another speeding offence in West Yorkshire.

The dad meanwhile revealed his partner's first name to the user "PalePipe". Roberts was eventually rounded up by police in May 2023, with a quantity of cash found hidden in an extractor fan at his home and a Rolex watch also being seized from him.

His two previous convictions for three offences also saw him receive a community order and unpaid work for dangerous driving and possession of cocaine in February this year.

The court heard that he had been a member of Nalgo FC for eight years up until his arrest, including coaching the under 14s team, while he also coached at Mayfair FC and was a "dedicated player" and youth coach for Lower Breck FC.

Richard Orme, defending, said on his behalf: "The defendant has in effect, at the first opportunity, fallen on his sword.

"He is labouring under no misapprehension of the sort of sentence that is to be attracted by this case.

"The principle concern is that by his stupidity, by his greed, by his belief that all the glistens is gold, he has put into effect a separation from his partner, his mother and also his daughter. He missed his daughter's first birthday party.

"He accepts that what he has done was motivated by greed. It is clear that all that glistens is not gold."

Of his client's guilty plea, Mr Orme added: "He has ploughed his own furrow and made a decision which he believes is in the long-term interests of his daughter and his family.

Only time will tell, but in my respectful submission it is highly unlikely that he will trouble the courts again.

"He apologises to his family. He apologises to the court.

"Clearly, all he is focussed on now is serving his sentence and being able to get home and see his daughter.

"He is a man who has effectively dedicated years to coaching and training youngsters in the Merseyside area.

"This is more the sort of person one is dealing with. He is deeply ashamed."

Sentencing, Recorder Nicola Daley said: "You were a well-established wholesaler and you obviously had a series of customers who you trusted.

"You obviously had numerous others working underneath you.

"You thought you were invincible by using that device. You are someone who clearly made substantial amounts of money and were undertaking a business in the expectation of of substantial financial gain.

"I take into account that there is another side of you. You apologise for your actions and refer to recently having missed your daughter's first birthday.

"This will be one of many. You have only yourself to blame for becoming involved in such serious criminality.

"You did not learn from your previous sentence, but I hope for the sake of your family and your young daughter in particular that you learn from this sentence. So many children looked up to you.

"You are anything but a role model to the youngsters you have coached.

"Anybody who works in these courts or reads or listens to the news knows only too well the misery and heartbreak caused by drug abuse in this city.

"Anybody who involves themselves in the supply of controlled drugs needs to think about the destruction they are contributing to.

"All will be too aware of the fighting between rival organised crime groups in this city and the innocent lives caught up in that warfare."