TWO heroin dealers who built a business on the streets of York have each been jailed for seven years after undercover police snared them on one of their drug runs.

Alfred Phillip Dear and Thomas Lee Tunney supplied addicts with wraps of the Class A drug – unaware of the undercover detectives were capturing their illicit enterprise on camera.

The pair are now starting seven-year jail sentences after police caught them ferrying heroin worth between £12,000 and £14,000 from Doncaster to York in a van.

Self-styled family men Dear, 36, of Clifton caravan site in Water End, York, and 27-year-old Tunney, from Osbaldwick caravan site in Outgang Lane, York, each admitted possessing heroin with intent to supply it in January 2009 and two charges of supplying heroin in April and May 2008. They both told York Crown Court they did not use the drug.

Sentencing the pair, Judge Roger Ibbotson told them: “I am satisfied you were conducting a commercial and established operation of selling drugs. Neither of you claim to be drug addicts – your purpose was purely to make money and you were directly involved in facilitating sales on the streets."

Kenneth David Barker, 45, of Elston Close, York, who accompanied the pair on the drug-dealing journey which led to their arrest and who also admitted possessing heroin with intent to supply, was jailed for a two-and-a-half-years.

The judge told Barker: “You are somebody who was involved because of your own dependence on drugs and your need to finance your habit."

Around 30 supporters watched from the public gallery as the three were sent down. Mark McKone, for the prosecution, said Tunney bought a Vauxhall Passat van at a Leeds auction for £4,800 on January 26, and later the same day police tracked it as it travelled from Doncaster to York. Its back door was opened as it was driven near Hemingbrough and on the ground nearby, they found 0.25kg of heroin in a roll of clothing.

Police, who later estimated the heroin was worth between £12,000 and £14,200 on the streets, stopped the van near the Fulford interchange on the edge of York with all three men on board. The court heard, in April and May 2008 officers had watched Tunney and Dear on a cycle path near James Street caravan site where Dear was then living, and the pair reached into the undergrowth before conducting drug deals with other people.

For Dear, Taryn Turner said he had been short of cash and that since the drug run, which had been a one-off, he had not offended, while Nicholas Barker, representing Tunney, said he was at the bottom end of the drug supply chain and faced separation from his baby. For Barker, Andrew Stranex said he had major health problems that required an operation and other treatment to correct. He was a long-term addict.


Police detective blasts drug dealers

THE detective who led the two-year operation which put the three dealers behind bars condemned them for preying on desperate addicts.

“The fact no evidence has been discovered nor offered that either Dear or Tunney were users of the drug gives a clear indication of their approach to dealing heroin,” said Detective Inspector Steve Smith, of North Yorkshire Police.

“They are indifferent to the circumstances of those who find themselves addicted to the drug, and they treat the drugs they sell and the people they sell them to as commodities. The timescale over which they have been convicted of supplying heroin shows their level of involvement and gives an indication to the protracted and complex nature of the investigation.”

Judge Roger Ibbotson praised the investigation, saying: “It required tenacity, leadership and professionalism from those involved, who dealt with what seems to me to be a severe problem.”