A TRIO who peddled thousands of pounds worth of drugs and took over the homes of vulnerable users have been put behind bars.

Tyler Gilford-Farley, Faith Willis, and Ian Brown, were each involved in the drugs trade across Basingstoke and Deane earlier this year and each pleaded guilty to two counts of being concerned with the supply of a Class A drug.

Over the course of a two day hearing on Friday last week and Monday this week, Winchester Crown Court heard Gilford-Farley, 19, was part of a drugs syndicate known as the WEZ network, which has been operating in Basingstoke since March.

The court was shown a list of phone billing addresses connected to Gilford-Farley, of the West Midlands, linking up with the WEZ phone number, which the prosecution said was indication of him selling drugs.

Prosecuting, Mark Ruffell said: “Mr Farley came down to Basingstoke on March 30, at the same time the WEZ line was sending out group messages to known drug addicts in the Basingstoke area stating that drugs were available.”

Mr Ruffell told the court Gilford-Farley was one of the network’s main lieutenants on the ground in Basingstoke and had been supplied with a zombie knife to use for intimidation.

The court also heard the group prayed on the vulnerable to ‘cuckoo’ them - using properties in Basingstoke and Tadley as their bases while they delivered the drugs to addicts around the area.

The court was also shown a video of one incident where Gilford-Farley was shown pointing a zombie knife at a vulnerable man and threatening him.

Mr Ruffell said the role of Willis, 21, was to keep hold of the money and organise taxi trips for the drug runners.

Mr Ruffell said: “We heard from one of the vulnerable people this group was staying with that Miss Willis was the one who handled the money.

“She may not have been actually dealing the drugs, but she most certainly knew what was going on.”

As for Brown, 21, he had only been part of the operation for two days before the trio were arrested on May 2 at an address in Essex Road, King’s Furlong, where they had been cuckooing.

The court heard when they were found, Willis, also from the West Midlands, was in a bed sitting on a stash of drugs, with Gilford-Farley and Brown, of London, hiding in the garden.

Throughout the hearing, Gilford-Farley, wearing a bright green headband, disrupted proceedings, muttering words under his breath and accusing the prosecution of lying.

Defending Gilford-Farley, Laura Miller said that her client only got involved in drug dealing because he owed a debt to a gang in London and this was a way of paying them back.

Ms Miller said: “When he moved back to London, the gang started to threaten him for the debt he owed.

“They asked him to do a job for him and that is what led him to Basingstoke. He believed once the debt was paid that would be it, but that was not the case.”

Defending Ms Willis, Aylene Tunon, told the court her client was only involved because she wanted to rescue the relationship she had had with Gilford-Farely who was the father of her young child and who she is pregnant again by.

Miss Tunon said: “She was involved through her naivety and emotional manipulation. She made no financial gain from this, it was purely to help Tyler.”

Defending Brown, Nadeem Holland, said it was a case of poor choices as he had “gone along for the ride” with what his friends were doing.

On Monday, Judge Richard Parkes QC addressed each of the defendants individually as he sent sentenced them one-by-one.

Judge Parkes commented on Gilford-Farley’s behaviour in the dock saying “you have spent most of this process acting like it is a bit of light entertainment,” before sentencing him to four years and nine months for both counts, to run concurrently, in a young offender’s institution.

Willis was sentenced to 33 months for both counts to run concurrently, with Brown sentenced to 30 months for both counts to run concurrently.