LAWYERS will argue the toss over whether a cocaine kingpin shifted 25kgs of the powder or up to 140kgs.
Richard Gray, 33, of Barley Court, Witney, was the top man in a conspiracy to supply the class A drugs across the region between March 2020 and May last year.
Using heavily-encrypted communications network Encrochat, he arranged to purchase kilos of cocaine at a time from suppliers in Preston and Bury. The drugs were driven back to Oxfordshire by couriers William White, 36, and Jamie Shepherd-Smith, 33.
Earlier this year, jurors in the trial of his brother, trusted lieutenant Patrick Gray, 44, and Milton Keynes-based customer Mohamed Ali, 50, heard that Richard Gray bought a modified Fiat van with a concealed drugs hide and even set up a courier firm with Companies House to make it easier for him to go undetected during lockdown.
A police audio bug fitted to Richard Gray’s van picked him up setting out his plan to funnel the cash they were making from drugs into a property portfolio. It would ‘get to the point where we become untouchable,’ he said.
Judge Michael Gledhill QC was this week meant to hear submissions from Gray’s lawyers about the amount of cocaine he supplied over the year-long period.
READ MORE: Gang that flooded county with cocaine won't be sentenced until next month
Although Gray pleaded guilty in January to two counts of conspiracy to supply class A drugs, he indicated that he would be entering a basis of plea.
As of Thursday that basis of plea still hadn’t been submitted by his lawyers, who said that their client had recently tested positive for coronavirus in HMP Bullingdon and it had not been possible to arrange a conference to go through the document with him.
Barely attempting to conceal his dismay, prosecutor Michael Roques told Oxford Crown Court on Thursday morning: “This has been an incredibly frustrating chronology.
“Richard Gray is responsible for delaying this case. I say Richard Gray, those he instructs and he together are responsible for delaying this case by months and months.
“I struggle to see how he would not have been able to enter a basis of plea on the day he pleaded guilty saying ‘this is how many kilos I dealt’.”
The court heard that Gray was understood to admit to dealing 5kgs of cocaine between March and June 2020 and 20kgs between October 2020 and May 2021.
READ MORE: Kingpin boasted of 'dodging a bullet'
The prosecution, however, say he was responsible for supplying 5-10kgs during the earlier period and between 60kgs and 80kgs over the second period. However, the judge would also be asked to consider a set of messages that the Crown claim show a plan to buy 50kgs of cocaine.
Richard Gray’s co-conspirators were waiting until his basis of plea was served until entering plea basis documents of their own, the judge was told.
Judge Gledhill re-fixed Gray’s ‘Newton’ hearing for May 25, when he will hear evidence from both sides and rule on how much cocaine was dealt.
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