Locked up in July - Knives, thieves, a horror smash and a drugs gang with links to 50 Cent

Дата публикации: 01-08-2026 05:00:00

The summer months are traditionally quieter in our courtrooms, but we appear to be bucking the trend

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The summer months are traditionally quieter in our courtrooms, but we appear to be bucking the trend

While the cases that come through the courtooms can sometimes but slightly formulaic, no two are ever really the same.

And this month threw in a curveball because, in almost 20 years covering the courts, our reporter has never before seen someone provided with a testimonial by an A-list rapper such as 50 Cent.

This really did happen and so below are a number of the more serious cases we covered in July.

A38 horror smash

Van driver Aaron Roberts had sent a photo and messages to a WhatsApp group chat called “Lads, lads, lads” before he careered into the back of victim Roger Bowler’s Nissan Micra on the A38.

The force of the collision caused the 38-year-old father-of-two’s Ford Transit to hit other vehicles and the central reservation.

Mr Bowler, a former Rolls-Royce senior engineer and charity founder had to be air-lifted to hospital.

And just 24 hours before the 73-year-old from Derby, described by his daughter Lindsey as “fully independent with a sharp mind”, had been given the all-clear from cancer.

She told the hearing how tragically her father's cancer later returned and he died in March of this year, seven months after the collision.

And in a heartbreaking victim impact statement, which she bravely read to the court herself, she said: “I lost him in March but I feel like I lost him in the crash, it absolutely destroyed me.”

Jailing Roberts, for two years, Judge Shaun Smith KC said: “You were driving in the most appalling manner.

“You were doing 82mph at the point you thumped into the back of Mr Bowler’s car and you had been driving at 89mph until five seconds before the crash.

“Shortly prior to that you had been on your phone sending not just a photo but also text.

“Nobody had a chance.”

The collision took place on the afternoon of July 1, last year, just north of Derby and Roberts pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

As well as the jail term, the judge disqualified Roberts, of Nesbitt Street, Sutton-in-Ashfield, from driving for two years and 10 months.

Fraudster builder

Derby builder Michael Haslam fleeced homeowners out of more than £200,000 by not carrying out work, or doing substandard repairs, while knowing his company could not pay its debts.

The 74-year-old ran M&J Builders Limited when it was insolvent, taking money up front from victims and delivering as little work as he could get away with.

Those the Littloever criminal defrauded paid thousands of pounds for home improvements between 2020 and 2022 but were left with dangerous structures, no running water, and bills they could not afford to fix.

In one case the traders that were sent by Haslam to do the work even had to ask to borrow the victim’s own tools as they had none.

Jailing the defendant, of Oaklands Avenue, for two years and four months, Judge Shaun Smith KC said: “This was not a fraudulent business from the outset and the end product for you is a one-bedroom council flat and an ill wife you have to look after you.

“But what about the people in the public gallery who you have ripped off? Their lives are equally, if not more, ruined than your own.

“It has had a seriously detrimental effect on the victims not just financially but emotionally and psychologically.

“You were drowning financially, you closed your eyes to the inevitable and you decided to rip off these eight families to try and keep it afloat but it was never realistic.

“You were robbing Peter to pay Paul but Peter didn’t have any money and neither did Paul.”

Haslam, a grandfather, pleaded guilty to fraudulent trading and has no previous convictions.

Speaking after sentencing, Mark Stephens, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: “Hearing how Michael Haslam has ruined his victims' properties really brings home the human cost of what he did.

“Every single one of his victims would not have gone anywhere near him had they known the true state of his company's finances.”

As well as the jail term, Judge Smith also disqualified Haslam from being a company director for 15 years.

Asda knifewoman

Forty-year-old Lisa Kelly was jailed for over three years after she attacked a woman with a knife outside a supermarket in Derby.

Armed officers were called to reports of a woman being stabbed in the wrist outside the Asda supermarket in Arleston Lane, Sinfin, at around 8.35pm on Wednesday, November 5, 2025.

A member of the public who had recorded the incident on their mobile phone flagged it to police at the scene, who identified the suspect.

She was located and arrested three days later and told officers during an interview that she had met the victim earlier in the day and that they had been drinking.

She said when she later went to a cash machine near the Asda, an altercation took place between the pair, with Kelly alleging the victim's dog had bitten her, saying she had run off into the supermarket to ask staff to call police.

She then stole a pack of knives and went back outside with the blades as a "scare tactic".

In a statement, the victim said: “Directly after this incident my anxiety increased to the point I was not able to go out at all and I was unable to sleep.”

Kelly, 40, of Burton Road, Derby, pleaded guilty to GBH and was sent to prison for 40 months.

Inspector Ben Wildman, of Derbyshire Police, said: "The assault was also carried out in a very public location and at a busy time that caused considerable concern within our community.”

The Three Thiefateers

This trio of shoplifters took coffee, chocolate and Calpol in a string of thefts from a Derby branch of Tesco Express.

Alexander Coles, James Bannister and Benjamin Reed all admitted to their offences which all took place at the same store in London Road.

Coles, 29, of no fixed address, admitted four counts of shop theft from Tesco and two additional counts of stealing from M&S at Kingsway Retail Park . He was jailed for 38 weeks.

Bannister, 42, of Alfreton Road, Derby, admitted one count of stealing from Tesco and received a 17-week prison sentence.

Reed, 46, of no fixed abode, admitted seven counts of shop theft against Tesco and was ordered to serve 36 weeks in prison.

PC Andrew Smith said: "We take the offence of shoplifting very seriously here in Derbyshire because we know how much this can leave businesses out of pocket.

"We work very closely with shops both in terms of giving crime prevention advice and also collaborating with them when a crime has been committed in order to bring offenders to justice.”

The drug gang linked to 50 Cent

Members of a Derby-based drugs gang which flooded the city and county with cocaine posted videos of tens of thousands of pounds in cash and had designer clothing worth more than £100,000.

The group dealt directly with those who import the highly addictive powder and at one stage a package weighing 739kg was collected from the English Channel having been dropped from a container ship.

Despite large seizures by the police the defendants “barely broke stride” and carried on running their conspiracies regardless in Chaddesden and Sinfin.

And one of the group even provided the court with a letter from the A-list rapper 50 Cent, who he once worked for.

Sentencing most of the group to a combined total of more than 127 years, Judge Jonathan Straw said: “These were two large-scale drug operations in Derby and each of these operations involved numerous multi-kilo consignments of high-level national distributors and the consignments often arrived in the same packaging they were wrapped in, in South America.

“Each was a slickly run criminal enterprise and each was well-established involving cooperation between each organised crime group.

“This was offending borne out of a lifestyle choice and not desperation.

“There was nothing glamourous or Netflix involved in what you were doing.

“Drugs are a blight on our society and lives are destroyed by this addiction.”

All of the gang either pleaded guilty to or were found guilty of charges including conspiracy to supply cocaine.

Dominic Hulland, 29, of Wood Road, Chaddesden, was head of the Chaddesden conspiracy and was jailed for 16-and-a-half years.

Aaron O’Donnell, 36, of Hobkirk Drive, Sinfin, was head of the Sinfin conspiracy and was also sent to prison for 14 years and eight months.

Harninder Purewal, 47, of Bridge Gate Lane, Derby, arranged the deliveries to the two conspiracies and was jailed for 20 years.

Abrirahiim (aka Samir) Hassan, 37, of London, was a link man between the capital and the East Midlands, provided the 50 Cent reference and lived “a jetset lifestyle” according to the judge.

He was handed an 18-and-a-half-year sentence.

Tony Lewis, a 37-year-old father-of-four and of Robert Adam Road, Allestree, supplied multi-kilos to the Chaddesden conspiracy and was handed an 11-year jail term,

Max Bowler, 31, of Carlton Road, Long Eaton, was “Dominic Hulland’s right hand man,” Judge Straw said, and was also found guilty of possession of an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear or violence.

He was sent to prison for 13-and-a-half years.

Alan Hulland, 54, of Main Road, Elvaston, is the uncle of Dominic Hulland and was caught with 2kg of cocaine in a bag for life in an Audi he was driving and jailed for nine years.

Lucas Sankey, 29, of Duffield Road, Derby, was handed a sentence of eight-and-a-half years.

Valentino Talic, 30, of Beaufort Street, Chaddesden, was handed an eight-year term.

Nicholas Cleary, 32, of Dolobran Road, Birmingham, worked as a courier for Lewis and was jailed for seven-and-a-half years.

Farmfoods crash driver

Ricardo Wood’s high-speed chase on a stolen motorbike ended with a crash in a Farmfoods car park and a member of the public getting bitten.

During the pursuit, the 26-year-old topped 60mph in a 30mph zone, jumped red lights and narrowly avoided a head-on collision.

As he tried in vain to flee from the police, the defendant, of no fixed address, lost control of the motorcycle, mounted a pavement and smashed into a metal barrier.

Attempting to run away on foot he was then caught by an officer who was helped by two brave passers-by.

At the time he was on licence from a long prison term of which he has now been recalled.

Now he has been handed 20 months for his fresh offences but they won’t add anymore to what he is currently serving for those past offences.

Judge Shaun Smith KC said: “It is obvious what happened here.

“You got involved with drugs, knew you had them on you and tried to get away from the police.

“It does not take a rocket scientist to work that out.”

The chase took place in Heanor on June 27 and Wood pleaded guilty to charges including aggravated vehicle taking, dangerous driving, possession with intent to supply drugs and assault.

As well as the jail sentence, the judge also disqualified him from driving for 20 months.

Long Eaton woman beater

Violent woman Nathan Grant told his latest victim he would “put her in a bodybag" during a series of abusive attacks and outbursts.

On one occasion the 33-year-old attacked the woman with such ferocity he broke her arm and left her with a permanent scar..

The defendant, of Collingwood Road, Long Eaton, also strangled the mother while she was sitting in the bath, punched her to the face and body, bit her to the face and demanded she give him her phone so he could check her messages.

Now he has been handed a sentence of seven years and nine months for all of his offences.

Judge Shaun Smith KC said: “You are, in my view, a very violent man, you are dangerous.

“You have a relentless propensity of causing harm to partners and custody has not acted as any deterrent.

“The probation service is worried about your grandiose attitude towards yourself.

“You have shattered this woman physically and mentally, you have a horrendous criminal history for violence.

“If you don’t change your life you will spend the rest of your life in and out of prison.”

The offences took place over a three-month period from December 2025 and Grant pleaded guilty to charges including assault occasioning grievous bodily harm, actual bodily harm, intentional strangulation and controlling and coercive behaviour.

He has 27 previous court appearances for 51 offences including a seven years and nine months term for attempting to cause GBH from 2021.

The judge said: “He can’t stop hitting people quite frankly.”

The sentence is made up of four years and nine months custody plus a three-year extended sentence for dangerousness.

It means he will serve two-thirds of the custodial element before he becomes eligible to apply for parole.

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