R v Lee Stoba
Simon Parry was the leading prosecution counsel along with Kevin Jones for Mersey-Cheshire CPS Complex Casework Unit. The prosecution involved an Organised Crime Gang of 21 individuals who were responsible for the supply of multi-kilo quantities of Class A and B drugs from Liverpool into various towns in Cheshire. The ringleaders also had a supply route into Scotland and the Prosecution sought the Attorney-General’s consent to take over the Scottish prosecution. After two trials lasting in total some three months, they secured convictions and guilty pleas to various degrees of all those charged. The total sentences passed ran to 109 years.
The ringleader, Lee Stoba, was running the operation from his prison cell at Altcourse where he was already serving 13 years for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs. The case involved substantial telecoms evidence, including from phones smuggled into prison, with the two ringleaders using a total of 28 separate phone numbers between them.
The case was covered in the Liverpool Echo, the Mirror, the Warrington Guardian, the Chester Chronicle, and the Daily Post.
