THE crown courts which deal with the criminals based in north Essex had a busy month in September.
Drug dealers, paedophiles and dangerous drivers were among just some of the people locked up last month.
Here are some of the lengthiest sentences dished out by judges in September:
Five years for drug dealer who ran bogus cleaning operation
Michael Devon, 24, of Partridge Way, Stanway, used a “bogus” cleaning business as a cover for a drug dealing operation.
Following his arrest, police discovered £40,000 had been paid into his business and personal accounts but found no evidence of a cleaning business apart from a couple of bottles of cleaning fluid.
Richard Potts, prosecuting at Ipswich Crown Court, said there were no reviews about the cleaning business and the only messages found on a phone belonging to Devon, which was linked to the business, related to drugs.
He was jailed for five years and eight months.
Total of 31 years for duo smuggling cocaine into Colchester
Neranjan Persaud, 60, from London, and Kryzstof Bakowski, 63, of no fixed address, have been given jail sentences totalling 31 years.
They were caught in Severalls Industrial Estate shifting a 50kg batch of cocaine worth £6 million at street level.
Ipswich Crown Court heard Bakowski wet himself when the Metropolitan Police swooped in and arrested them.
Persaud, who was described as having a pivotal role in the operation, was jailed for 17 years and Bakowski, who was described as a "courier", was jailed for 14 years.
Four years for paedophile who sent pictures to '13-year-old'
David Pennery, 32, of Rayner Road, Colchester, downloaded and distributed indecent images of children.
His phone was seized by police during a raid at his home in March and a number of indecent images of children were found on it.
It was also discovered he had distributed one indecent image of a child and a video in the most serious level A category and further images in the lower B and C categories.
Pennery had also engaged in sexualised chats and sent pictures of himself to someone who said he was a 13-year-old boy.
21 years for pensioner convicted of historic rapes in Colchester
Robert West, 67, from Colchester, was arrested in March 2020 amid an investigation into offences which date back to the 1980s and continued into the early 2000s.
Two of West's three victims were teenage girls at the time, with one telling the police she had been repeatedly sexually abused by him.
Another of the victims gave birth to a child while she was still a teenager and it was only then her abuse came to an end.
A jury at Ipswich Crown Court heard DNA tests decades after the birth found West was the father.
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