Former Corby coke dealer bought office supplies stolen from barracks by British Army soldiers

A convicted cocaine dealer sold ink toners stolen from the Ministry of Defence through his Kettering print supply business.

Shane Jelley bought the supplies from a serving soldier named Ben Alexander Garner who had taken them from stores at Catterick Garrison.

Jelley, now of Singlehurst Close, Weldon, and formerly of Larkwood Close, Kettering, appeared before Teesside Crown Court earlier today (Monday, February 20) to face a charge of handling stolen goods.

The last time Jelley was before the courts in 2019 was to be sentenced for his role in a drug gang shoot-out with a travelling family during which a 17-year-old boy was shot in the face.

This morning, Recorder Marco Giuliani heard that Garner had contacted Jelley back in December 2017 to offer him toners and imaging units that he had stolen from the quartermaster stores at Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire.

An earlier court hearing was told that Garner had admitted being involved, along with three other soldiers and one of their wives, in stealing equipment worth more than £100,000 to sell online.

Garner along with Stephen Miles Bagshaw, his wife Fay Bagshaw, Lloyd Doak and Thomas Smith all previously pleaded guilty at Teesside Crown Court to conspiracy to steal Ministry of Defence property from the base between 2017 and 2019. Another defendant, Emma Joyce, has also admitted separate charges.

Jelley, 35, who was running Jemini Office Solutions from a unit at Telford Way industrial estate in Kettering , bought 169 toners worth £13,176 from Garner between 2017 and August 2018.

The court was told that Jelley may not had known at the outset that the items were stolen, but text messages showed that by the end of their association, he knew that they had been taken illegitimately.

The supplies had either been sent through the post of Jelley had travelled to North Yorkshire to collect them.

He was arrested in July 2022 and pleaded guilty at the first magistrates’ hearing in York.

The court heard he had a previous conviction for growing cannabis in 2015. In May 2019 he was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison for conspiracy to supply cocaine and for violent disorder at the Greenfields Travellers’ Site in Market Harborough in 2016. That incident had occurred following a row over payment for cocaine at the Chequered Flag pub in Corby.

The court heard that Jelley was released from prison in July 2021 after having served half his sentence but is still on licence.

Recorder Giuliani reduced his sentence by one third to take account of his early guilty plea and ordered him to complete 100 hours of unpaid work during the forthcoming year.

Documents posted with companies house show that Jelley ceased to be a director of Jemini in 2018 and now runs a new business, Just Ink & Toners, which was worth £152,000 when it last filed its accounts with Companies House.

A proceeds of crime act hearing will be dealt with separately.