Career criminal given 16 years for drugs plot

Kevin Booth, 49, went on sailing courses, bought a 20,000 rigid inflatable boat and even had flying lessons at Leeds-Bradford Airport to pilot fixed wing aircraft before his arrest last summer.

Although he was not linked directly to any drugs importations into the country prosecutor Nicholas Lumley told Bradford Crown Court yesterday that he had been arrested "before his plans grew".

After a surveillance operation covering several months Bingley man Booth and trusted courier Paul Kirman, from Huyton, Liverpool, were both arrested after police swooped on their drugs meeting near a car auction in Brighouse last July.

Booth drove off but was arrested after a pursuit and Kirman was detained after being followed back to his home on Merseyside.

Mr Lumley described how the police inquiry uncovered various quantities of cocaine, amphetamine and a new drug, flouro-amphetamine, worth about 1.3m either at Kirman's property or in a so-called safe house which had been set up in an unoccupied flat at Hipperholme.

Police also recovered an industrial food processor, a heat sealing machine and 50 kilos of cutting agent at Kirman's home.

In the Hipperholme flat officers found a hydraulic press, 15 kilos of cocaine and 5.5 kilos of the flouro-amphetamine.

They also recovered nearly 60 kilos of a cutting agent which was being imported from China.

In the garage of an address belonging to a girlfriend of Booth's police found another hydraulic press which could be used in compression and packaging of drugs for onward sale.

Mr Lumley said Booth's laptop revealed photographs of the French coast and the surveillance included meetings between Booth and other sophisticated criminals.

Booth, of Dobkiln Lane, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A drugs. It emerged during yesterday's hearing that he had previous convictions dating back more than 30 years – including for a commercial burglary conspiracy, wounding with intent, affray, robbery, false imprisonment and for conspiring to smuggle heroin into prison hidden in magazines.

Kirman, 44, who admitted conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and possession of drugs with intent to supply, was jailed for seven years.

Booth's son Michael, 21, of Cleckheaton Road, Bradford, was jailed for 21 months after he admitted being concerned in the production of a Class A drug and unrelated offences of possessing offensive weapons and drugs.

He admitted carrying bags of cutting agent into the Hipperholme flat for his father.

Jailing Kevin Booth, Judge Jonathan Rose said his criminal activities over 34 years had been motivated by overwhelming greed and his long prison sentences had not deterred him.

The judge said: "The facts recited to me concern the movement of drugs within the United Kingdom and the people that you were meeting with within the United Kingdom demonstrates that the distribution of the drugs would be within the shores of the United Kingdom.

"But it is a nonsense to think that it can be overlooked quite how far you were prepared to go, perhaps literally as well as figuratively."

The judge commended the work of the police officers and civilian staff in the case.

Speaking after the hearing Detective Inspector Pete Darbyshire, said: "Kevin Booth is a violent and dangerous man and he displayed this whilst resisting arrest in July. He drove at excessive speeds to avoid capture before the car he was driving collided with a gate and then he attempted to escape officers on foot, before being arrested.

"In his pursuit to establish importations and supply of drugs within the UK, he took flying and sailing lessons as well as buying a boat, which he trained to use to cross the English Channel whilst having no apparent legitimate income."