A Heathrow airport worked named Santa has been convicted of dealing prescription drugs just days before Christmas.
Rohan Santa, 37, was part of a ‘commercial enterprise’ running prescription drugs Xanax and Pregabalin illegally.
Winchester Crown Court heard that Santa kept the plethora of drugs stashed stashed in a storage unit which Judge Barry McElduff described as an ‘Aladdin’s cave of drugs’.
After police caught Santa with huge amounts of pills and £540 worth of cash in his wallet, he claimed that he had been ‘seduced by the money’.
At the court, he admitted receiving shipments of prescription drugs to the storage unit and changing the labels on them and distributing them.
Santa was charged with possession with intent to supply of class C drugs and appeared at Winchester Crown Court, Hants.
Christmas came early for Santa though as he was spared jail after being handed a 12-month sentence, suspended for 18 months.
Prosecuting, Matthew Jolliffe said Santa was stopped by police when driving a Volkswagen Golf along with another man in July this year.
When searching the vehicle, the police found Xanax and Pregabalin in the car, along with three mobile phones, one of which had a known drug line on it.
There were also messages sent on Telegram, sent directly to customers. He also had two more SIM cards in the car and a wallet with £540 cash in it.
Mr Jolliffe said that the police searched a storage unit that was registered in Santa’s name and found a large amount of prescription drugs in the lockup.
He said: ‘The scale and the volume in the lockup suggests it was a commercial enterprise. There is evidence of Santa using courier services to supply the drugs with courier labels.’
Santa worked at Heathrow Airport but there was no evidence he abused his role to supply the drugs.
Mitigating, Ashley Hendron said that Santa did not have a leading role in the operation because he was working together with another dealer.
He said: ‘This was not a sophisticated business, but it is not a leading role he took. There are other cases where they have a nice lifestyle, unexplained income, and this is not that.’
Judge Barry McElduff said: ‘Your storage unit was an Aladdin’s Cave of drugs, including Amoxicillin, steroids, as well as postage labels and other items.
‘You admitted you received shipments of drugs and changed the labels, and sent them on. It was easy money.
‘You started off doing this as a favour to a friend, but you were seduced by the money.’
Santa was also ordered to undertake 200 hours of community service and six days of rehabilitation. He was ordered to pay £378 costs.
