A traffic marshal at the UCI World Championships has been jailed for 'peddling' cocaine and ketamine at the event.
Monique Shiels was marshalling at the 2019 UCI Road World Championships in Harrogate, Yorkshire when she was caught red-handed trying to sell class A drugs to spectators.
The Harrogate Advertiser reports the 25-year-old was arrested on the fourth day of the competition - the same day defending champion Rohan Dennis stormed to victory by more than a minute in the 54km men's individual time trial.
Upon being arrested Shiels asked the officers: "Who was it who dobbed me in?"
Prosecuting, Matthew Collins said: “Information had been received by police…that this defendant was dealing drugs whilst working as a traffic marshal for (the) UCI Cycling World Championships in Harrogate.
“Police (turned up at) the location where she was reported to be and found her standing near her vehicle.
"Her first response to officers was, ‘Who was it who dobbed me in?’”
Officers found £333 cash on Shiels, as well as a 'quantity of orange tablets and some powdered substance' in a black bag she was carrying.
They searched her car - which she used for traffic marshalling during the prestigious event - and found digital weighing scales and a Samsung mobile phone with text messages sent between Shiels and her customers discussing deals and amounts.
Shiels was arrested at the 92nd edition of week-long UCI World Championships, which saw Mads Pedersen of Denmark win the men's elite road race and Annemiek van Vleuten of the Netherlands win the women's race.
During conversations with the Probation Service following her arrest on the 25 September 2019, Shiels said she didn’t see anything wrong with dealing drugs.
Shiels, of Water Skellgate, Ripon, admitted possessing cocaine and ketamine, with intent to supply.
Andrew Petterson, mitigating, said that Shiels, who worked as a sales adviser for a TV dealership, was a self-confessed drug user.
“Clearly, she is one of the misguided individuals in society that doesn’t see (drug-dealing) as a problem,” he added.
Shiels was jailed for two years and the judge also ordered the confiscation of Shiels’s vehicle and made her pay a statutory surcharge.
I'd ask if it has been tested on English batsmen in the hot sub continent but they never bat long enough to find out.
I have one of those retro rim-brake bikes too! What make are your wheels? Do you find the 60mm tricky in winds?
The infrasturture needs to be built first. Why would anyone swap to a bike unless they felt it was a safe alternative?...
Hmm, a four year old article on when to change worn out articles.
Oban Sportive entered for mid-May but not optimistic. The organisers have been very open about their September contingency plan. ...
Just... don't even think about it....
Looking at the reaction from the car, I suspect the driver was making sure they didn't hit anything on their left and didn't see the cyclist at all...
There's a few parked cars in it too in the video, making it unusable. Strange that many drivers would then have a go at the cyclist for not using a...
I ride in the new Forest, both on and off road. I have never seen groups of cyclists travelling at speed or being abusive. I have only ever seen...
That's really sad.....