A well-to-do family ran a fake vets practice at their Woolton home so they could order nearly 400,000 Diazepam tablets to flog at a profit.
Barbara Ray, 70, named the bogus surgery Atalaya after the house she shared in Gateacre Brow with her husband David Ray, 76.
Liverpool Crown Court heard how drugs were regularly delivered to the property, which were signed for by Barbara and David using fake names.
Unexplained payments of £70,000 and £45,000 later appeared in Barbara Ray’s bank accounts as well as those of their daughter Sarah Ray, 38, .
Judge Andrew Menary, QC, said: “They appeared to be a perfectly ordinary, respectable family. Mr Ray has a property business.
“Clearly Mrs Ray, apart from making jam and Victoria sponge, was overseeing the supply of massive quantities of diazepam.”
Nicola Daley, prosecuting, said all three defendants were charged with being concerned in the supply of a Class C drug.
But Barbara died in May this year and her co-accused pleaded guilty on the basis she had been responsible for setting up the scheme.
Miss Daley said Barbara used the personal details of a South African vet, who treated their pet while working at an Aigburth practice in 1997, to set up the scheme and place orders with Centaur Services.
Barbara bought small amounts of legitimate products such as dog worming medicine but also more than 370,000 diazepam tablets from the veterinary wholesalers.
At one stage she ordered 100,000 diazepam tablets over 12 months, which raised suspicions at Centaur, and it reported the matter to the authorities.
Miss Daley said: “Sarah said she was recruited into it, with her mother asking for her bank account to be used for the purchase of drugs.”
Sarah accepted she provided her bank card and some drugs were also delivered to her home.
Around £4,700 was paid out of Sarah’s account to Centaur from June 2007 until June 2014.
Meanwhile from January 2013 to July 2013, £700 was paid from David’s account to the firm.
Miss Daley said: “The Crown say even if it was Sarah and David simply allowing Barbara to use their cards, they must have been aware of those payments being made.”
When interviewed by police, Barbara admitted the diazepam was being sold commercially.
Gerald Baxter, defending David, said he worked for his dad’s telegraph systems business – founded in 1890 – before retiring due to ill health.
He said he went into property and spent much of his time in a basement office at home with “little outside contact”.
Mr Baxter said: “This was a criminal enterprise set up and run by his late wife. It seems a mystery as to how or why she did that.”
He added that the wheelchair user, who suffers from depression, had adequate income from his pension.
Erimnaz Mushtaq, defending mum-of-one Sarah, now of Halewood Road, Woolton, said: “It is certainly unusual that a family of this background appears before these courts.”
Judge Menary said Barbara was the “principal offender”, but Sarah and David “clearly had some appreciation of what she was doing”.
He said “It is odd because it doesn’t appear this family needed money.”
The judge handed David a conditional discharge for two years, due to the “exceptional circumstances” of the case, his age and poor health.
Judge Menary gave Sarah a 20-month sentence, suspended for two years, with 12 months’ supervision and 100 hours of unpaid work.
Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/