ANTI-DRUGS COUNSELLOR SOLD HEROIN TO ADDICTS

A man who worked as a team leader and counsellor for an anti-drugs
charity funded by the Home Office has been jailed for supplying heroin
to the people he was thought to be helping.

Nottingham Crown Court heard that David Francis, 37, was caught when
undercover officers from Nottinghamshire Police raided a house and
found him and his accomplices with half a kilo of heroin. Andrew
Easteal, prosecuting, said: "When searched by police, Francis's
pockets were quite literally bulging with cash."

Francis, who pleaded guilty to possession of heroin with a street
value of around UKP72,000, was jailed for seven years. Gang members
Stephen Warner, 33, of Nottingham, and Christopher Powell, 21, of
Thornton Heath, Surrey, were jailed for five and five and a half years
respectively.

A warrant was issued for the arrest of a third man Vance Yeboah, of
Streatham, south London. In 1993 Francis had been appointed head of
the Crack Awareness Team, set up by the Association for the Prevention
of Addiction, a charity which was funded by the Home Office.

Judge Dudley Bennett told Francis: "You more than anybody
else should have known the misery of people who had become
addicted." Detectives believed Francis used boys as young as
12 to ferry the drugs on mountain bikes around the St Ann's
and Meadows estates of the city.