An ‘extremely paranoid’ Ryan Fisher’s erratic behaviour also led to his innocent dad being arrested
An ‘extremely paranoid’ Ryan Fisher’s erratic behaviour also led to his innocent dad being arrested
A dad “lost his head” at the Co-op and shoved £7,000 of cocaine up his bum. An “extremely paranoid” Ryan Fisher bizarrely told police, who had been called to the convenience store as a result of his erratic behaviour, that he had a secret hide for stashing drugs within his car.
This led to officers arresting both him and his innocent dad before he asked an officer to accompany him to the toilet and handed over a fistful of cash from his within his pants. The now twice convicted drug trafficker yesterday thanked a judge and told him “take care” as he was locked up again.
Liverpool Crown Court heard on Thursday afternoon that police were called to the Co-op store on Holes Lane in Woolston, Warrington, on the evening of January 28 this year. It followed reports of a “male being intimidating to staff”. Officers attended the scene and were approached by Fisher, who “appeared extremely paranoid” and said that he believed he had a “hide in the boot of his car”.
Georgiana Panteli, prosecuting, described how this led to PCs searching the blue Skoda Octavia, which was parked nearby with the engine running and the 32-year-old defendant’s dad sitting inside. They then discovered £1,100 in cash and a large snap bag containing white powder within the vehicle, leading to both dad and son being arrested.
While this substance later transpired to be a quantity of sulfuric acid which his dad was “legitimately using as part of his employment”, Fisher suffered a medical episode in custody and was taken to Warrington Hospital as a result. There, he asked for a police officer to accompany him to the toilet and placed his hands down his trousers before producing further monies totalling around £500.
When examined, Fisher, of Statham Avenue in Orford, was found to have a foreign object within his backside, with a surgeon subsequently removing a bag of drugs from his anus and scans determining that another package was concealed within his stomach. This led to the recovery of 56g of cocaine, class A drugs said to have been worth between £2,800 and £7,000 at street level.
Experts meanwhile determined that the substances were “not packed in a way normally observed in pre-planned plugging” with Ms Panteli adding that the “defendant’s likely original intention had not been to plug the drugs” but that he had instead “done so in haste once he realised that the police were there to avoid the drugs being recovered”. He has 23 previous convictions for 47 offences, including receiving 40 months for possession of cocaine with intent to supply in 2022.
Sarah Griffin, defending, told the court that her client had “demonstrated remorse” and was “trying to rehabilitate himself in custody”. She added: “In the defendant’s words, he lost his head.
“One might think that, looking at the circumstances of this case, that is exactly what happened. He simply had a mental health episode. It is clear that here, whether induced by drugs or otherwise, he was not in the right frame of mind. He accepts that he was consuming a significant quantity of drugs around this time.
“He had been working as landscape gardener. He had contact with his nine-year-old daughter and had his own apartment. As far as he was concerned, he was on the straight and narrow.”
But Ms Griffin detailed how Fisher had suffered a “downward spiral” following the deaths of two close family members. She added: “References paint a picture of a very different man.”
Fisher admitted one count of possession of cocaine with intent to supply and was jailed for three-and-a-half years. Sentencing, Recorder Nicholas Flanagan said: “You have poor criminal record for your age. Most significant, there is a previous convictions for drugs back in March of 2022, when you received a 40 month prison sentence for a very similar offence to the one that you face today.
“In mitigation, I accept that you have sadly suffered some recent bereavements. It is also clear that people speak highly of you, and there are good aspects to your life. You have mental health issues and genuine remorse.
“It is difficult to understand why you have decided to involve yourself again in the supply of class A drugs. You must know and understand the impact of drugs on users and society at large. Nevertheless, you involved yourself in drugs.
“These sentences will only continue to get longer if you continue to offend in this way. If you find yourself in the same position again, you will attract a minimum sentence if convicted of a third drug trafficking offence.”
Appearing via video link to HMP Altcourse, Fisher responded to his sentence by saying: “Ok, thank you very much. I really appreciate that. Take care.”
