Colchester: Cocaine gang members to repay £40k, court hears

Before Ipswich Crown Court on Monday for a hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act were Stephen Ford, Kian Rulten, Jack Tyrer, Luke Welham and Jake Goodspeed, who were sentenced to jail terms totalling almost 40 years at Ipswich Crown Court in January.

Ford, 32, of Monkwich Avenue, Colchester, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply cocaine, assault, possession of an offensive weapon in a private place and possession of a knife and was jailed for eight years.

On Monday, his hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act heard that although his benefit from his offending was £393,000 he only had available assets of £18,000 and a confiscation order was made in that sum.

Rulten, 27, of Morant Road, Colchester, admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine, acquiring or using criminal property, affray and assault and was jailed for a total of nine years.

Richard Potts, prosecuting said his benefit from his offending was £194,000 but the available amount was only £26,740 and a confiscation order was made in that sum.

Tyrer, 25, of The Commons, Colchester, admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine and a number of driving offences and was jailed for four years and two months.

His benefit from his offending was £123,498 but the available amount was only £10.13 and a confiscation order was made in that sum.

Ford, Rulten and Tyrer were  also made the subject of Serious Crime Prevention Orders for five years.

Goodspeed, 25, of Monkwick Avenue, Colchester, admitted wounding, conspiracy to supply cocaine and acquiring or using criminal property and was sentenced to nine years and seven months in prison.

His Proceeds of Crime hearing was adjourned until Wednesday together with that of  Luke Welham, 26, of Vince Close, West Mersea, who admitted conspiracy to supply cocaine, possession with intent to supply cocaine, acquiring or using criminal property and possession of cannabis and was sentenced to seven years and six months.

At the defendants’ sentencing hearing in January the court heard that Ford and Rulten ran the F&K drug line in Colchester between April 2021 and July 2022.

During that period, thousands of drug deals were made and a minimum of 1.5kg of cocaine worth a minimum £100,000 was sold.

The line was overseen by Ford and Rulten, with Welham and Goodspeed responsible at different times for holding the drug line.

Tyler was used as a runner for the gang and was seen on CCTV buying credit for the line.