Car-dwelling drug dealer who made thousands found parked on grave at Pontefract Cemetery
A dealer who was living in her car was caught selling heroin and crack cocaine twice and was arrested after she parked over a grave in a town cemetery.
Homeless Kay Jakiela was given a length prison sentence at Leeds Crown Court this week after admitting a string of drug-related offences.
The 44-year-old was first arrested on September 10, 2023 after police had gone to Pontefract Cemetery off Skinner Lane where they found her parked up, half over a the path and half over a grave.
They noticed a crack pipe in her hand and she “appeared spaced out”, prosecutor Tom Jackson said.
On her they found almost 26 grammes of heroin, worth up to £2,500, and £420 in cash. She then tried to claim the officer had planted the drugs on her.
She was arrested and later bailed under investigation.
But on May 1 this year, police came across her again in her car. The engine was running and she seemed “out of it”, had glazed eyes and was unsteady on her feet.
She had wraps of heroin and crack cocaine in her pocket, along with more than £2,900 cash. She also had bags of cutting agents and two mobile phones.
Jakiela gave a no-comment interview at the police station.
Appearing in court this week, she admitted two counts of dealing in crack, two of dealing in heroin, two of possessing criminal property and a conspiracy to supply cocaine and heroin.
Mitigating, Jazmine Lee said Jakiela had been addicted to drugs “for some time” and said her lifestyle contributed - having had a relationship with a drug dealer.
Ms Lee added: “She felt she had no other choice or opportunity in the circumstances she was in. It was not sophisticated offending.
“She was simply taking drugs to survive and fund her own habit. She was not living a lavish lifestyle, she was living in her car with all her belongings within that car.
But Judge Howard Crowson pointed to the large quantities of money she was making and said that low-level dealers who sell to feed their own habit are not trusted with that amount of cash.
He told Jakiela: “You knew the scale of the operation - it was your operation.”
He jailed her for 45 months.