Southwark Crown Court heard former currency broker Ginnelly even sold £100 worth of the class A drug while sitting in the car with his three children.David Royston, 44, and ex-currency broker Michael Ginnelly, 55, ran the drugs racket from Mr Pickwicks in Leman Street, Whitechapel on the edge of the City.Over 12 months the pair supplied cocaine in increasing amounts to a series of undercover police officers.
Boasting he had 25 years experience in the drugs business, Ginnelly lived in a rundown council estate and fronted the deals while his partner in crime Royston drove around in a Rolls Royce and lived in a riverside apartment.The pair began as 'low level retailers' supplying a 'couple of Gs' for £100 at a time before progressing into 'wholesale traders', earning £8,500 for just one deal.As well as selling in the upstairs bar of Mr Pickwicks, Royston supplied wraps from his partner's insurance business down the street.The dealers even arranged a lunch meeting at the OXO Tower to discuss supplying two kilos of cocaine a month after two undercover cops posed as dealers based in Brighton.They were arrested on July 6 last year, after officers from the Met's Clubs and Vice Unit swooped after a 20-month operation called Telon.Ginnelly pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine between July 5, 2006 and July 7, 2007, and was sentenced to five years.Royston pleaded guilty to the same count and was given a six-year jail term.Passing sentence, Mr Recorder Phillip Katz QC said: 'What the pair of you are doing sitting here having gotten involved in this I really don't understand, it makes no sense to me.'You are both intelligent and successful men but there you are waiting for me to pass a sentence of imprisonment on you.'He continued: 'What this started out as was retailing cocaine from drinking premises above a bar in Leman Street.
'It was of a low level to people that you believed to be users and they were small amounts.'That went on for some months because the first evidence of a larger deal was not until December 2006 when Mr Ginnelly effectively supplied amounts for £1,000.'The judge added: 'After the OXO Tower meeting nine ounces was supplied for £8,500 by you because you had been tempted out of greed by the proposition that was put to you by these undercover officers to up the stakes.'I don't think this was entrapment, I don't think there was anything wrong with this, I think this was the officers in the case seeing how far you were prepared to go.'The court heard that during the operation just over a total 307grams of cocaine was sold by the defendants, worth around £11,000.Prosecutor Ann Darlow said: 'These defendants were subject to an intensive surveillance operation involving a number of test purchase officers.'At the commencement of the operation they supplied smaller amounts of cocaine wrapped in lottery tickets, less than a gram, but during the course of the operation amounts offered for supply escalated and the Prosecution put the case that this was wholesale dealing by both the defendants.'Following a meeting with two undercover officers in Mr Pickwicks in July 2006, Ginnelly quickly established himself as a dealer with plenty of contacts and gave the police his mobile number.
In March last year, Ginnelly, himself a heavy drug user, met with an undercover officer while he sat in a car with his three children.Ms Darlow said: 'He told the officer to get into the car to carry out the deal in front of the children, supplying two wraps of cocaine for £100.'Royston also dealt to officers from a basement boardroom and Ginnelly later claimed he was in the process of setting up a first floor members only bar at Mr Pickwicks so he could freely distribute cocaine.
As the deals got bigger, the pair began arranging meetings with the undercover officers at hotels around London.The biggest deal, for a 'nine ounce bar', took place in a hotel room near Tower Bridge and netted the dealers £8,500.
They were finally arrested on July 6 last year.
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