WHEN the police stopped electrician Michael Ledwidge’s car and checked boxes of wine and champagne he was transporting, they discovered around £250,000 worth of cocaine.
Ledwidge (37) of Highfield Lane, Corley, was jailed for five years and three months after pleading guilty at Warwick Crown Court to possessing the cocaine with intent to supply it.
Prosecutor Matthew Barnes said that in July last year police officers in an unmarked car began to follow Ledwidge who increased his speed when he realised they were behind him.
The police used two cars to block in Ledwidge’s VW Golf in Wood End Lane, and in the back they found he had nine boxes of wine and champagne.
But hidden in three of the boxes were blocks of high-purity cocaine weighing a total of 2.81 kilos which, once cut and divided into street level deals, would have been worth around £250,000.
Ledwidge also had three phones, one of which was encrypted and had a foreign sim card in it.
And at his home was found 78 grams of cannabis which he admitted having for his own use.
When he was questioned, Ledwidge, a self-employed electrician, claimed he had bought the wine from an Asian man that day for £210, and knew nothing about the cocaine in the boxes.
Gary Cook, defending, conceded: “Your Honour has no other option to a custodial sentence, and it’s bound to be a significant one.”
He said Ledwidge was ‘drowning in debt’ at the time because of a heavy gambling addiction.
“He was betting large sums which took me aback when he told me about them. Initially he was able to support that, but he describes sports betting, casinos, poker, anything.
“There were better days, but my goodness there were bad days. He lost £8,000 in two or three days on one occasion.”
Mr Cook said Ledwidge and his partner had been having IVF treatment, and he knew he was losing money which could be better spent on that, and could not bring himself to tell her.
“In debt and required to repay that debt, he agreed to pick up these items. He accepts this was a disastrous decision.
“Since July last year he began again with his work and made a clean breast of things to his family. They know this is wholly out of character.”
Jailing Ledwidge, Judge Sylvia de Bertodano told him: “Class A drugs ruin people’s lives. I say it time and again in this court, and I say it time and again because I see people who are addicted to drugs in this court on a daily basis.
“Although no one is suggesting you are some kind of underworld drugs kingpin, you were acting in a way that those at the top of the chain rely on.
“You were driving drugs from A to B and were no doubt being paid for taking that risk – and now you are paying the price for that risk not paying off.”
