Kettering personal trainer ran drug dealing enterprise from flat where crack was cooked in kitchen

A drug dealing personal trainer has been jailed again after crack cocaine was cooked in the kitchen of his Kettering flat.

Simon Stuart already had three drug supply convictions when police found class A substances worth thousands of pounds in a raid last year.

He tried to escape via a balcony with sidekick Yannick Zoucouba before the pair were busted and taken into custody.

Last week Stuart, 51, was jailed for five-and-a-half years and Zoucouba, 31, was locked up for three years.

Northampton Crown Court heard police executed a warrant at Stuart’s Windmill Avenue home, which was described as a ‘drugs hub’, on July 8.

Prosecutor Sebastian Walker said officers found a plastic container with 21.55g of crack cocaine in and another 12.5g of heroin. Drug paraphernalia and scales were found alongside 4.45g of heroin in deal bags.

The total value of the drugs was estimated as up to £3,440. Phones were recovered and messages consistent with drug dealing were found.

Mr Walker said: "Both defendants had a significant role."

There was also a crowbar on the sofa, a baton on the coffee table and two rambo knives in Zoucouba’s bag.

Cash was found on a table, which the court heard was ‘no doubt profits from their takings that day'. And the court heard that a drugs expert had concluded that the crack cocaine in the kitchen, along with a microwave bowl and bicarbonate of soda, meant that drugs had recently been chemically prepared there.

Stuart denied two charges of possession of class A drugs with intent to supply but was convicted by a jury in December. Northampton Crown Court heard he had previous drug supply convictions from 2005, 2009 and 2014, which under criminal law triggered a minimum seven-year prison sentence.

William Forber-Heyward, mitigating for Stuart, said he had become a personal trainer but slipped back into substance abuse when the Covid pandemic struck and has since gone cold turkey.

He told the court that the drug dealer has put his time in prison on remand to good use, holding enhanced prisoner status and helping others in the gym, and said there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation.

The court heard mitigation of the huge impact Stuart’s incarceration is having on his family and Mr Forber-Heyward asked whether it would be unjust to impose the statutory minimum sentence because of it.

He said: "He is deeply sorry that he finds himself back here and apologises to all concerned."

Zoucouba, formerly of Orchard Crescent in Kettering, denied having any knowledge of the preparation of crack cocaine, a basis which was accepted by the prosecution when he admitted two charges of possession of class A drugs with intent to supply.

The court heard he also had a previous drug supply conviction from 2018 and had led an honest life when he was last released from prison, working at Greggs and then starting a course in plumbing.

Mitigating, Micaila Williams said Zoucouba was an ‘intelligent man’ who was no longer addicted to drugs and had proved he had learned his lesson before.

She said: "It is a sad state of affairs that he has found himself back in this position again."

Sentencing, Recorder Matthew Walsh said Stuart was running the criminal enterprise from his flat and that Zoucouba was either being paid in drugs or by reducing an existing debt.

He told the pair, who appeared over videolink from HMP Peterborough: "Neither of you are strangers to the world of drug supply."

Zoucouba’s prison sentence was reduced from four years to three years because of his guilty plea.

Recorder Walsh told Stuart he was ‘just’ persuaded to choose not to impose the minimum seven-year sentence because of his ‘exceptional circumstances’.

Instead he was sentenced to five years and six months in prison. Both will serve half of their sentence in custody before being released on licence.