Traffic marshal jailed for 'peddling' cocaine and ketamine at UCI World Championships

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.