Ryan Fisher was ‘extremely paranoid’ and told police he had a ‘hide’ in his car – but was actually concealing drugs inside his body when officers attended an incident at a Co-op store
A father “lost his head” at the Co-op and stuffed £7,000 worth of cocaine up his bottom. An “extremely paranoid” Ryan Fisher bizarrely informed police, who had been summoned to the convenience store due to his erratic conduct, that he possessed a secret hiding place for concealing drugs inside his vehicle.
This resulted in officers detaining both him and his innocent father before he requested an officer to escort him to the toilet and produced a handful of cash from inside his trousers. The now twice-convicted drug dealer expressed gratitude to a judge and told him “take care” as he was imprisoned once more.
Liverpool Crown Court was told on Thursday afternoon that police were summoned to the Co-op shop on Holes Lane in Woolston, Warrington, on the evening of January 28 this year. This followed reports of a “male being intimidating to staff”.
Officers arrived at the scene and were approached by Fisher, who “appeared extremely paranoid” and claimed that he believed he had a “hide in the boot of his car”.
Georgiana Panteli, prosecuting, outlined how this prompted PCs to search the blue Skoda Octavia, which was parked close by with the engine running and the 32-year-old defendant’s father sitting inside. They subsequently found £1,100 in cash and a large snap bag containing white powder within the motor, resulting in both father and son being arrested, reports the Liverpool Echo.
Whilst this substance later turned out to be a quantity of sulphuric acid which his father was “legitimately using as part of his employment”, Fisher experienced a medical episode whilst in custody and was transported to Warrington Hospital as a consequence. There, he requested a police officer to escort him to the toilet and placed his hands down his trousers before producing additional cash totalling around £500.
Upon examination, Fisher, of Statham Avenue in Orford, was discovered to have a foreign object within his backside, with a surgeon later extracting a bag of drugs from his anus and scans revealing that another package was hidden within his stomach. This resulted in the recovery of 56g of cocaine, class A drugs reported to have been valued between £2,800 and £7,000 at street level.
Specialists meanwhile established that the substances were “not packed in a way normally observed in pre-planned plugging” with Ms Panteli noting that the “defendant’s likely original intention had not been to plug the drugs” but that he had instead “done so in haste once he realised that the police were there to avoid the drugs being recovered”. He has 23 previous convictions for 47 offences, including receiving 40 months for possession of cocaine with intent to supply in 2022.
Sarah Griffin, defending, informed the court that her client had “demonstrated remorse” and was “trying to rehabilitate himself in custody”. She added: “In the defendant’s words, he lost his head.
“One might think that, looking at the circumstances of this case, that is exactly what happened. He simply had a mental health episode. It is clear that here, whether induced by drugs or otherwise, he was not in the right frame of mind. He accepts that he was consuming a significant quantity of drugs around this time.
“He had been working as landscape gardener. He had contact with his nine-year-old daughter and had his own apartment. As far as he was concerned, he was on the straight and narrow.”
However, Ms Griffin outlined how Fisher had experienced a “downward spiral” after the deaths of two close relatives. She continued: “References paint a picture of a very different man.”
Fisher pleaded guilty to one count of possession of cocaine with intent to supply and received a three-and-a-half year prison sentence. During sentencing, Recorder Nicholas Flanagan stated: “You have poor criminal record for your age. Most significant, there is a previous convictions for drugs back in March of 2022, when you received a 40 month prison sentence for a very similar offence to the one that you face today.
“In mitigation, I accept that you have sadly suffered some recent bereavements. It is also clear that people speak highly of you, and there are good aspects to your life. You have mental health issues and genuine remorse.
“It is difficult to understand why you have decided to involve yourself again in the supply of class A drugs. You must know and understand the impact of drugs on users and society at large. Nevertheless, you involved yourself in drugs.
“These sentences will only continue to get longer if you continue to offend in this way. If you find yourself in the same position again, you will attract a minimum sentence if convicted of a third drug trafficking offence.”
Appearing via video link from HMP Altcourse, Fisher reacted to his sentence by saying: “Ok, thank you very much. I really appreciate that. Take care.”