A MANCHESTER Grandma who was busted with high purity Cocaine in a Tupperware box claims she thought it was Pollyfilla.
When Greater Manchester police officers arrived to arrest Anne-Marie McLoughlin, she appeared from her bedroom in a dressing gown and handed over a Tupperware tub containing 28 grams of the class A drug, the jury heard.
The contents of the box were forensically tested and the coke was found to be 76 percent pure and with a street value of £6,400.
Cheryl Mottram, prosecuting, said that an expert said that the drug would have been adulterated and would have been worth up to £6,400 on the streets.
McLoughlin, 52, has denied possessing the class A drug with intent to supply, but a jury took less than 30 minutes to find her guilty.
McLoughlin was charged after being detained by officers at her home in Clough Avenue, Wilmslow, on the morning of April 13, 2016.
Police armed with a search warrant raided the premises.
McLoughlin claimed she found the container of the drug on top of her outside gas meter box the previous night. She said she did not know what it was but thought it could be chalk or Polyfilla and put it in a drawer in her bedroom to keep it safe from her grandchildren.
She intended to discuss with her husband whether they should take the item to the police but he was asleep.
The next morning he had gone out before she woke and the police then arrived.
After her conviction, Miss Mottram said that it was not believed she would have sold the drug to street users, but she had been acting as custodian and would have passed them onto someone else.
guidelines for her offending behaviour had a starting point of three years in jail, she said.
Judge Gary Woodhall told the blonde-haired defendant at Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday, who has no previous convictions except a conditional discharge for theft 28 years ago, that he could give her no assurances what sentence she will receive.
“The guidelines call for a prison sentence but I want to consider the matter,” he said.
He further remanded her on bail until March 1 to enable a pre-sentence report and evidence about her medical problems to be prepared. The court had heard that both she and her husband did not work because of health difficulties.