Two Corby cocaine suppliers who made £1.1m from their crimes ordered to pay back just £6,000
Two drug dealers from Corby who were part of a plot to smuggle cocaine across the country have been ordered to pay just a fraction of their ill-gotten gains back to the state.
Mr Big Scott Stirling, 45, and pal Anthony ‘Tony’ Barrett, 58, were part of an 11-strong gang that plotted to bring cocaine in and out of Corby, Peterborough, Liverpool and Coventry.
The gang was snared after French police cracked the Encrochat code on encrypted phones and uncovered messages between members. They were eventually caught on the M6 in 2020 with cocaine worth £160,000 in 2020.
Members were jailed for a total of 67 years in summer 2024 after various trials.
Stirling, previously of Eastbrook, Corby, and Main Street, Caldecott, was convicted of conspiracy to supply class A drugs and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment. Barrett, of Holkham Close, Corby, was sentenced to five years and three months after pleading guilty to conspiracy to supply class A drugs.
Most of the gang were subject to proceeds of crime act (POCA) proceedings, which allows the state to claw back some of the cash or assets gained by criminals during the course of their criminal activity.
The last pair – Stirling and Barrett – were excused attendance at a final POCA hearing before Northampton Crown Court on Friday (October 18).
His Honour Judge David Herbert KC was told that, after an extensive financial investigation, it was found Stirling earned a whopping £583,904 from his dealing. Barrett earned £620,697.
But the amounts that were deemed ‘recoverable’ were a paltry £5,920 from Stirling, and for Barrett, just an old car worth £700 which he was ordered to sell.
Both men were told that if they do not hand over the money they will have to serve an extra 21 days in prison. Police are already in receipt of Stirling’s cash as it was seized on his arrest.
Half of the money is paid to HM Treasury with the rest split between the court, the police and the financial investigator in the case.
Back in 2009, Barrett was given a 17-year sentence after admitting smuggling drugs between Holland and West Yorkshire. He served half of that sentence before getting out of prison and resuming his dealing.
Stirling was sentenced along with his long-term pal Bobby Beaton back in 2012 after they were found running a notorious property called ‘The Shop’ where locals would come and buy drugs through a hatch from a property in Eastbrook.