Man caught with £5m drugs haul in car jailed

A debt-ridden businessman caught with "an incredibly high purity" haul of cocaine worth more than £5.7m has been jailed for 10 years.

Garry Sinclair, 37, tried to escape from two unmarked police cars by reversing into one of them in Shipley, Bradford, in October.

Bradford Crown Court heard police pinned his Volkswagen Passat against a tree before finding dozens of 500g vacuum-sealed bags of the illegal drug inside.

Sinclair, of no fixed address, previously admitted charges of possession of cocaine with intent to supply and dangerous driving.

Sinclair's car was stopped by police at the junction of Valley Road and Otley Road on 5 October, prosecutor Amber Walker told the court.

Along with the 114 bags of drugs, Sinclair also had £250 in cash and an airline ticket when he was arrested.

Ms Walker said the 57kg seizure of cocaine had a street value of between £5.7m and £6.8m, with the purity between 73-90%.

The court heard Sinclair would face a further hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act in February.

The process would be more in-depth than usual, the hearing heard, as he is the director of a number of companies and the signatory to more than 16 bank accounts.

Barrister Laura McBride, representing Sinclair, said the defendant had played a significant role in the offence, but that he was in a "very dark place" at the time.

She said Sinclair was suffering from clinical depression and had borrowed money which required repaying.

"In order to repay that debt he was asked to work as a driver moving these drugs from one place to another," said his barrister.

Jailing Sinclair, judge Kirstie Watson described it as "an incredibly high purity seizure of an extremely large amount" of Class A drugs.