Man caught with drugs stuffed inside Kinder Eggs loses appeal against six year sentence

Andrew Ralph Wooff was jailed for six years at Southampton Crown Court after pleading guilty to dealing crack cocaine and heroin.

Wooff was given a minimum seven year term, reduced by a year for his guilty plea, due to two previous convictions for dealing Class A drugs.

But the 58-year-old appealed his sentence at the Court of Appeal in London, arguing that sentencing judge Christopher Parker QC was “unjust” to impose the minimum term.

Wooff's barrister, Jonathan Underhill, argued that his client's previous convictions, in 1997 and 2008, were “old” and that the court had not ordered a pre-sentence report.

But judges in the Court of Appeal rejected Wooff’s arguments, saying that although the judge’s sentence was “not wrong in principle, nor was it excessive”.

The court heard how Wooff was caught with the drugs in Southampton after a police officer spotted him handing something to a woman in the street on April 19.

When police searched his apartment they found crack cocaine and heroin, with a street value of £500, in Kinder Egg shells wrapped in a sock and a further £1,150 worth of the substances in a jacket.

Officers also found drug paraphernalia including scales and six mobile telephones, some of which contained messages relating to selling drugs.

The court heard that further examination of the phones showed Wooff was a “habitual” drug user who was selling drugs to make a profit or to obtain discounts to feed his own habit.

Wooff pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply.

The court also heard how Wooff, of Belmont Road, Southampton, had 21 previous convictions for 58 offences between 1978 and 2012.

Among the convictions were two previous Class A drug dealing convictions, meaning Woof’s third conviction activated a minimum prison term of seven years.

Judge Parker reduced the sentence to one of six years, due to Wooff’s guilty plea.