Accountant caught with deadly heroin and crack cocaine on M62 and Pontefract

Umayr Hanif and Haaris Iqbal were jailed at Leeds Crown Court for a combined total of more than 10 years. The pair had been stopped on Castleford Lane in Pontefract in a VW Passat on November 6 last year.

With Hanif driving, the pair were taken out and searched. An iPhone was retrieved from the driver's side door which was "continually ringing", prosecutor Louise Pryke. It later turned out to be a drugs line number that the police were aware of. They also found a key to a lockbox which contained 234 wraps of crack and heroin worth more than £2,300.

They later searched 20-year-old Iqbal's home address in Bradford where he lived with his grandparents, and found 1.3kg of crack cocaine, 248 grammes of cocaine and 68 grammes of heroin in a locked room. It was worth £156,000.

Both defendants were interviewed but gave no comments, then both were remanded into custody. The court heard that 26-year-old Hanif had also been arrested six months earlier on May 6, 2023, driving along the M62. His car was searched and in a concealed hole above the sun visor they found 521 wraps of crack cocaine and 152 of heroin, worth a total of £4,730.

They both appeared in court from custody via video link. Iqbal, of Wrose Road, Shipley, admitted two counts of dealing in class A drugs. Hanif, of Moorside Road, Eccleshill, Bradford admitted four counts.

Mitigating for Iqbal, Alasdair Campbell said it was "accepted that custody was inevitable". He said that Iqbal suffered from PTSD due to an incident that was not disclosed to the court and struggled to hold down a job.

He said: "He was preyed upon by others to hold vast amounts of drugs. There's no evidence he was dealing, but it has to be accepted it was a lot of drugs."

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For Hanif, Angus MacDonald said he had been forced into selling drugs in November to pay off the debt incurred by losing the drugs when he was stopped on the M62. He said Hanif's father had fallen ill and he needed more money to support his family, so gave up his accountancy job to deal full time.

He said: "He took the disastrous decision to leave his job and supplement the family income by drug dealing. He was in a good job getting a good salary. His drift into this offending can be contributed by the ill health of his father and the break up from his long-term partner. He does not put forward any excuses."

Judge Simon Batiste jailed Hanif for six years, and Iqbal for four-and-a-half years.