Romford drug woman has sentence challenge turned down

A Romford woman linked to a drugs haul by a lottery ticket bearing her fingerprints had her sentence challenge turned down by top judges today.

Fallon Dorothy Thursting, 27, was jailed for three years at Basildon Crown Court in December last year after she admitted possessing cocaine with intent to supply.

Thursting, of Dulverton Road, was prosecuted after police searched her home in February last year, London’s Appeal Court heard, cracking open a safe which contained 19 grammes of cocaine.

The drugs were packaged in a number of “wraps”, said Mr Justice Wyn Williams - with one wrap in the form of a lottery ticket bought by Thursting.

Her fingerprints were also on the incriminating ticket, the court heard.

Thursting claimed she was simply a low-level “minder” for the cocaine, which she was keeping an eye on for an accomplice.

But Mr Justice Wyn Williams, sitting with Lord Justice Pitchford and Judge Paul Batty QC, said the crown court judge was entitled to find that Thursting was “more than just a minder”.

She was “providing material assistance” to her accomplice by allowing him to “keep the drugs at her home”, said the judge.

“It doesn’t seem to us that this was a manifestly excessive sentence,” he concluded, dismissing the appeal.