Increased sentences for dealers after police appeal

Oct 30 2011 by Sophie Doughty, Sunday Sun

DEALERS thought they had got away just a slap on the wrist for pushing drugs on the streets.

But Kevin Gaunt, Wayne Froud and Tina Robson are today all behind bars after top judges decided the sentence they had been handed were too soft.

The trio were all convicted of selling cocaine and crack cocaine on the streets of Sunderland after being snared in an undercover police operation.

Yet when Gaunt, Froud, and Robson – all operating as the street-level drug pushers in a network of dealers – appeared in court, only Gaunt was jailed and for a paltry eight months.

Now, after the detectives and lawyers who brought the crooks to justice took the case to the court of appeal all three have been locked-up.

Det Chief Insp Steve Barron of Northumbria Police’s serious and organised crime unit said: “All three defendants were street-level drug dealers involved in the supply of class A drugs.

“There are a whole host of people involved in the supply of drugs from people at the very top to those selling on the streets. In this case we felt the sentences were too lenient and did not reflect the activity these three had been involved in.” Gaunt, Froud and Robson, were netted in a long-running covert police operation that saw scores of dealers at all levels, from South Tyneside and Sunderland, arrested.

All three had pleaded guilty at Newcastle Crown Court to supplying class A drugs.