A Fazakerley man caught selling cocaine to fans after travelling to an Everton away game in London has been spared jail.
Father of two and staunch Everton fan , Liam Gray, of First Avenue, was filmed passing two wraps of cocaine to another fan in a pub near the Craven Cottage ground in London.
Initially he claimed he was selling a ticket to another fan from Kirkby. But when he was searched 25 wraps of cocaine were found hidden in his underpants.
Gray, 29, pleaded guilty at Isleworth Crown Court to possessing 25 wraps of cocaine, weighing nearly 20g, with intent to supply and supplying two wraps.
He was given a two year jail sentence suspended for two years and placed under the supervision of the probation service for two years.
Gray organises his own coach trips for Everton fans throughout the UK and abroad and buys all the match tickets via the supporters club. On this occasion the Capital One Cup match was against Fulham in September 2013 and ended in a 2 – 1 defeat for Everton.
Before he was sentenced Gray told the court: “It was a one-off, knocking out the gear, not a regular thing. It was so everyone could have a good time.
“I only bought it to sell to my friends and bought it in London so we could have a good time on the coach on the way home.”
He said many of those who regularly travelled on the trips he organised enjoyed getting high and continued: “I was going to take the cocaine on the coach on the way home and sell it at cost price to anyone that wanted any and use the rest myself.”
He told the court he had paid a dealer £750 for the drugs at the Glastonbury festival earlier that year.
But, with one previous conviction for supplying the drug, he added: “Now I don’t take cocaine anymore because of the effect it has had on my life.”
Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/