MEMBERS of a family run gang that operated a heroin and crack cocaine pipeline from Bradford to York have been jailed for a total of more than 20 years.

But the leader of the gang is today still at liberty after NHS bureaucratic delays prevented a senior judge from locking him up.

Bradford Crown Court heard how for months, Ethan Wharton, 37, operated a regular transport service buying high purity drugs and cutting agents in Bradford from Kesser Hussain, 24 and organised convoys of cars from Hull and Teesside to Bradford to bring heroin and cocaine back to York.

The cars were driven by his older brother, Edward, 42, his then wife Rosemary Smith, 28, and Simon Hall, 44, with possibly other drivers. In York, Ethan Wharton had the drugs delivered for processing and sale from a drugs flat in Coxwold House, Lowther Street, The Groves, and kept money at the home of his mother, Yasmin Biggs, 62.

Sentencing the gang members, the Recorder of Bradford, Judge Roger Thomas QC, said: “On any view, this was drug supply on a professional and considerable scale.”

His sentences bring the total number of years handed down to gang members to more than 40. Three others were jailed last October at York Crown Court.

York Press:

Ethan Wharton, formerly living with his mother Biggs in Ayton House, Cole Street, The Groves, and now of Stokesley, was found unfit to plead last summer on charges of conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine in 2015 and possession of cocaine with intent to supply it in 2014, shortly after he had pleaded guilty to charges of having counterfeit money. Doctors have declared he is psychotic.

A Bradford jury last month found he had committed the acts of both the drugs offences and the judge said he wanted to confine him to a psychiatric hospital. But Wharton’s barrister Jessica Strange told him he could only do so if there was a bed available, and NHS managers had yet to say there was.

The judge ordered the NHS trust for York psychiatric services to provide him with the information he needed. Ethan Wharton will learn whether he is to be locked up on April 28. Both North Yorkshire Police and the CPS are holding his case open and he may yet face a full trial if he recovers from his mental illness.

The officer in the case, Det Con Tim Jackson, of North Yorkshire Police’s organised crime unit, said outside court it was a travelling family run gang that had operated across county borders, but were brought to justice by several forces, police officers and support staff working together.

“This clearly demonstrates the determination of North Yorkshire Police to keep the scourge of drugs off our streets,” he said. “Gang members now have to face the consequences of their criminal behaviour.”

Hussain, who sold the drugs from his family home in Kismet Gardens, Bradford, was jailed for nine years. His barrister Emma Downing said his actions had been naive and amateurish and had not got him rich. He had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply drugs on the day the trial of other gang members began and was remorseful for his actions.

Edward Wharton, Smith and Hall denied the conspiracy charge and Biggs denied possessing nearly £3,000 in criminal cash. All four were convicted at trial at Bradford Crown Court last month. Edward Wharton, of Cole Street, The Groves, who took part in the last days of the conspiracy very shortly after his release from a prison sentence, was jailed for four and a half years.

His barrister Andrea Parnham said he had led a “checkered” life committing crimes and being jailed, but was now starting to live a law-abiding life.

Hall, of Witbank Road, Darlington, was jailed for seven years. He had previously operated a similar pipeline. His barrister Reginald Bosomworth said he had been pestered by Ethan Wharton for money..

Smith, of Hewley Avenue, Tang Hall, was given a two-year prison sentence suspended for two years on condition she does 15 days’ rehabilitative activities. The judge said she was involved in one journey, would have had difficulty saying no to her husband and had five young children to look after.

Biggs was given a six-month night curfew between 8pm and 7am. The judge said she must have known what her younger son was doing and her loyalty to her had got her involved in his crimes.

She has now moved to the caravan site in Stokesley where Ethan Wharton lives.

Last October, Shayne Garnett, 48, was jailed for six years and eight months, Craig Dale Laing, 39, for seven, and Shantal Laing, 32, for five and a half years, after all three admitted supplying drugs from their flat in Coxwold House.