Detectives have welcomed the jailing of a drug dealer’s girlfriend who warehoused cocaine at her Banbury flat.

Sophie Plowman, 28, was jailed for five years at Oxford Crown Court this morning (January 23), when the judge was told she had been left traumatised by the dawn raid when she was arrested in front of her young son.

Last year, she was found guilty of involvement in the drugs conspiracy overseen by her ‘professional drug dealer’ boyfriend Richard Gray. You can read our report from the sentencing here.

Welcoming the jail term handed down by Judge Michael Gledhill KC, DC Gavin Toney of Thames Valley’s serious organised crime unit said: “Plowman may have played a lesser role than other members of this organised crime group, but any involvement in drug supply is a serious offence, and she has now been sentenced accordingly.

“Those convicted brought large quantities of class A drugs into the Thames Valley.

“We will never tolerate this, and we will proactively and robustly pursue and prosecute offenders, and our activity will be both visible and covert to ensure that the harm brought into our communities by organised crime groups is removed.”

LONG READ: What was said at Sophie Plowman's trial

On Monday, Judge Gledhill told Plowman that gang leader Richard Gray came into her life ‘for the principal reason that he could see that you could be extremely useful to him as somebody who he could control and manipulate to his will by pretending and persuading you that he loved you’.