He was sent to prison because of what was on his “remarkable” grafted phone

A drug dealer boasted that his cocaine was “better than anyone else’s”.

Darren Duffy’s exploits came to an end after police raided his mother’s home and discovered her “remarkable” grafted phone. Officers also detained an armed forces veteran who was sleeping on his sofa.

Liverpool Crown Court heard today, Thursday, that Merseyside Police executed a search warrant at the address on Newton Road in St Helens, where the 49-year-old lived with his mother on December 4 last year. Michael Heyes, of Laurel Road in Prescot, was also staying at the property while “couch surfing”, breaking up with his girlfriend.

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Carmel Wilde, prosecuting, described how officers seized “grafted phones” from both men at the scene. Duffy’s was shown to have sent out a total of 1,230 advertised drugs for sale with “flash messages” over a two-month period between October and December last year, or around 20 a day and up to 86 in 24 hours.

Examples of these texts were read in court and included “on”, “the best” and “better than anyone’s”. Ms Wilde highlighted a one-hour period on the evening of October 5, 2023, during which 122 calls or messages were made or received.

Meanwhile, Heyes gave the computers the password to his own device, which was used to send 136 individual messages, including one that read “power on, 10 out of 10”. This was received by 18 different recipients.

The 39-year-old has a total of 22 previous convictions for 30 offences. David Birrell, defending the father-of-two, said: “He was a class A drug user at the time. He lost something like 7. To some extent, he supplied drugs to fund his own habit.

“He is ex-military and served in Iraq. He tried to lead a normal life. He was working in a warehouse, but couldn’t handle the machinery, which triggered his PTSD. He self-medicated.

“To his credit, he tried to give up drugs. He went cold turkey and looks good.

Duffy – who has 23 previous convictions for 60 offences, including supplying class B drugs in 1997 – was said to have been “coerced” into drug dealing because of a £1,000 debt. Michael Hegarty told the court on his behalf: “The irony is that the line was one he himself used many times.

“His health is not good. He has been abusing drugs for many years. Initially, it was amphetamine. That had a significant effect on him physically. His speech is very difficult to understand, he has a wobbly walk. In fact, he looks like a drug addict.

“A few years ago, he relapsed into heroin and crack cocaine.

Duffy and Heyes admitted they were concerned with the supply of cocaine. They were each sentenced to three years in prison.

Sentencing, Recorder Mark Ainsworth said: “The reason the courts take such a serious view of the supply of Class A drugs is because Class A drugs destroy lives. They wreak havoc on society.

“People become addicted to Class A drugs. It impacts their lives, their families and their relationships.

“It causes devastation. Each of you found yourself involved in the supply of Class A drugs because you were each a drug user.

“That’s how you got drawn into this evil job. Whatever reason or justification you could find for engaging in it, all you were doing was passing the crap on to others.”

The judge added to Duffy: “The amount of traffic on your phone was quite remarkable, even in the context of such cases.”

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