An NHS worker has been jailed for smuggling 14 wraps of cocaine into Creamfields music festival.
Courtney Healey, 21, was found with nearly nine grams of the substance in her bag, having brought the party drug to the dance festival during her weekend off as a care support worker.
Although Healey argued she'd brought the drugs to share with her friends, text messages revealed she was set to sell some of the stash to a man already in the festival who offered to pay her £200.
The incident unfolded last year, when Healey travelled more than 200 miles from Wales to the event.
Advert
Her plans were stopped in their tracks when a tent search led to the discovery of the cocaine, which was said to have a value of between £420 and £1100.
In a recent court case, Prosecuting Richard Edwards said: "Multiple messages included Healy asking her friends in a group chat how they were taking their drugs in."
In one text, a person responded: “Oh my god I am dreading this, you are all smackheads.”
In another one discussing cannabis, Healy said: “I smoke it every day. I feel like I might rip someone’s head off otherwise.
“My mum would actually send me to jail if she found out I done it.”
Edwards told the court about the impact of the annual festival at Daresbury, Warrington - and how there are many opportunities to surrender drugs at the festival with amnesty bins.
He also highlighted the posters at the festival which warn festival-goers about the consequences of being caught with illegal substances.
The court heard how Healy, from Maesteg in South Wales, has no previous convictions, with defending Bernice Campbell stating: “This is a young woman who has ruined her life.”
Campbell described Healy as having a ‘devil-may-care’ attitude to drugs but said at the time she was going through a ‘low point’ in her life.
She said it is a ‘terrible, terrible’ shame for Healy and that she was just a ‘go-between’ rather than being concerned about supplying drugs.
The 21-year-old, who was said to have ‘lost a promising career’ as a health care support worker in the NHS, pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine with the intent to supply at Chester Crown Court.
Jailing her for three years, judge Steven Everett said: “Yes, she can hang her head. This is not a naïve young woman is it?
“It shows she is completely enveloped in the drug culture and is very blasé about it.”
“You can’t be both – a health care support worker and somebody that is involved in the supply of terrible class A drugs. And you chose the latter."
Daisy Phillipson