South Shields drugs courier loses legal bid to clear his name

Darren Gates, 50, from South Shields, was jailed for six-and-a-half years in February 2020 after a crown court case lasting three months and a police investigation dating as far back as 2015.

He was convicted of conspiracy to supply class A drugs after the trial heard how officers found £110,000 in cash when they arrested him while he was driving in October 2015.

Five other men, who were from Hartlepool, Peterlee, Haswell and South Hetton, were acquitted at the same trial with the jury also discharged from reaching verdicts about two other defendants.

Gates, formerly of Grays Walk, whose role in the drugs plot was described in court as “significant”, subsequently launched an appeal to have his conviction overturned.

But three judges sitting at the Court of Appeal, in London, have now dismissed his application to have the original verdict quashed.

A full explanation for their January 2021 judgement is expected to be published shortly.

The Teesside Crown Court trial heard on Gates’s behalf that the £110,000 recovered in October 2015 was part of a “legitimate business interest” and not connected to any plot to supply cocaine.

His barrister told the jury that he had been out of trouble for 20 years with no previous involvement with drugs.

The trial also learned that Gates had been working as a driver transporting carers while also carrying out property repairs for a friend’s care homes business.

But experts said the banknotes recovered by the police were contaminated with twice the level of cocaine normally found in circulation.

Gates was convicted of the offence by the jury by a majority verdict of nine to one with Judge Peter Armstrong stating that his role as a courier of the money was significant and deserving of a lengthy sentence.

The trial learned how £100,000 of cocaine was recovered as part of Durham Constabulary’s lengthy Operation Ebony investigation and that Gates was likely to face a Proceeds of Crime hearing to seize assets from him.

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