14 more years for day-release drug dealer
12 April 2012
A drug dealer who set up a new million-pound network while on day release from prison has been jailed for another 14 years.
Richard Podd, 43, was released from jail to carry out paid work six years into a 14-year sentence for importing drugs.
But while working for an Essex car rental business he established a new narcotics network. When police swooped on the car firm's offices, they found £80,000 of cocaine stashed in the ceiling.
Podd's prison diaries revealed he was making drug deals worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.
He was convicted at Southwark crown court of conspiracy to supply cocaine and Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith gave him a 14-year sentence to be served consecutively to his previous term — a total of 28 years.
