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Justice (Lonpicman, Wikimedia Commons)'Hopeless' drug dealers caught transporting their wares on a tandem
Two Barnsley drug dealers were caught when police spotted them pedalling around on a tandem reports The Star. Josh Rollinson and Jack Prince were stopped at 12.30am on August 5 and were found to be carrying several grams of ketamine. “This could only happen in Barnsley,” said Judge Michael Murphy. “It’s not exactly Miami Vice.”
At Sheffield Crown Court, Louise Gallagher, prosecuting, said that the pair had appeared to be nervous and agitated when police stopped them.
“Officers recovered from Prince seven bags of a white powder in his wallet which was 3.63g of ketamine, a class B drug. It seemed to be split into half-gram deals and had a value of between £72-108.
“Rollinson, when searched, had a bag of white powder in his trouser pocket. It was 28mg of ketamine. When police officers attended Rollinson’s home address, in his wardrobe they found a package containing 11.9g of skunk cannabis worth £120. The Crown accepts this was for personal use.”
Both men admitted possession of a class B drug with intent to supply. Rebecca Tanner, representing Prince, said: “In respect of the operation, this is not sophisticated as you can tell from the method of transport.”
The court heard that Prince had ceased using drugs, while Rollinson had reduced his cannabis use from £20 per day to £30 per week. Prince was also described by his employer as ‘a right little grafter’ while Rollinson, who has a five-year-old daughter, was said to be living with his mother who had suffered a mental breakdown.
Judge Murphy said:
“There are good things to be said for you both but when it comes to acting as drug dealers, you are utterly hopeless. You are going to be caught if you are dabbling in this again because you are hopeless. Cycling around Barnsley on a tandem past midnight is going to get you stopped.”
The pair received a suspended sentence of eight months in prison and 120 hours of unpaid work. It is not known whether they had been riding a push-me-pull-you tandem.
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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23 comments
Lots of young lads on MTBs and BMXs round our way are employed as drug couriers. Young lads of about 10 or so are less likely to be stopped by the cops, a fact of which the gangs are well aware of.
Vonhelmet you must be a tandem rider to be so defensive over my original remark and then to compound it by your second comment the inference by the Judge is quite clear.
I'm not, and I can't figure out whether you're being serious or not...
"...not sophisticated as you can tell from the method of transport."
Sounds like anti-cycling prejudice to me!
Jeez yet another story about doping cyclists
Err, hang on...
I would urge all those complaining to come back when their bike handling skills are of such a level that they can manage to ride a tandem whilst ripped to the tits on bag of horsey* tranquiliser.
Don't judge a man until you've pedalled a mile in his SPDs.
*I'm aware than ketamine is also used in human medicine.
Loving the use of "peddling" in the front page link title. Given its regular misuse across cycling websites, fora, and especially Facebook and newspaper comments sections.
Was the chance to chuck that in the whole reason behind some grammar pedant at road.cc deciding to run this story?
It's painfully obvious from pretty much every article that there are no grammar pedants at road.cc. However, I'm willing to believe that they did make a decent pun, deliberately, in this case.
Was the guy sitting behind a (s)toker?
Thought Cookson said he was going to crack down on the use of drugs by cyclists. Let's see what he has to say about this then!
It's funny, for God's sake. Jeez, lighten up people. I was born, and used to live, in Barnsley, and cycling round there on a tandem in the early hours of the morning while looking dodgy WILL get you stopped. For once, I find myself in agreement with the judge's summing up. Hilarious.
Road.cc are clearly unable to execute simple arithmetic, and appear to shape themselves into some kind of Cyclists Daily Mail. What next? Foreigners coming over here and cycling on our roads?
Nothing in the quotes mention anything about 7kg or ket, mind you even if they did some of this they wouldn't be moving very far.
"Aye pal, we wuz just gettin some Strava segmunts in and havin a wee practice for a PBP attempt"
Is absolutely every story in which a bicycle is mentioned for any reason now being reported on here?
Not only is it "not exactly Miami Vice" it's not exactly a cycling story, is it?
You don't have to read it you know...
I like it that road.cc puts up articles like this sometimes. Keep them coming I say.
It involves bikes. Its slightly unsusual, hence maybe just about worth reporting. What harm does reporting it do?
To be honest, I doubt that delivering drugs and cycling is a rare combination, its just use of the tandem that makes this unusual.
Indeed my suspicion that at least a few of the less well-behaved cyclists round here may be involved in specialised courier work is one reason amongst many why I think its daft to ascribe some sort of collective responsibility onto 'cyclists'. People going about that sort of business aren't likely to be overworried about 'giving cyclists a bad name' by cycling on the pavement or not having lights.
edit - true though, that the article seems rather confused between kilos and grams! In fact milligrams, so a factor of a 1,000,000 out!
So according to Judge Murphy if you use a tandem you are up to no good.
So does this make them weight weenies? Or not?
No, if you're cycling around Barnsley past midnight you're up to no good, is what he said.
Let's be honest, most of us would be surprised to see anyone on a tandem past midnight.
Judge Murphy said:
“There are good things to be said for you both but when it comes to acting as drug dealers, you are utterly hopeless. You are going to be caught if you are dabbling in this again because you are hopeless. Cycling around Barnsley on a tandem past midnight is going to get you stopped.”
Please read the third sentence of the Judges comment and pay particular attention to the sixth word.
The word "tandem"?
I stand by my comments. I'd be surprised to see anyone out on a tandem past midnight.