A 10-strong gang managed to hide away looking like any other groundwork crew, but their appearance hid their sinister intentions.
The group that worked across England in Merseyside, London and Nottingham, would turn up to work in vans bedecked with professional-looking livery and equipment. But instead of servicing the street and community, the group were splicing electricity from the national grid into houses set up as cannabis farms for Albanian gangs.
The same gangs were trafficking vulnerable people from overseas to come and work in horrific conditions in their multi-million pound-earning enterprises. The group of 10 were “just as culpable” as the Albanian gangs, despite being below them in the twisted criminal hierarchy, the North West Regional Crime Unit operations team Detective Chief Inspector Zoe Russo said.
“The nature of their offending completely enabled the cannabis farms to be run,” the top cop said. She added: “They are absolutely as culpable – it wouldn’t be able to happen without them.”
Ross McGinn, Andrew Roberts, Greg Black, Lewin Charles, Aiden Doran, Graham Roberts, Jack Sherry and Colin White were all sentenced following a two-day hearing at Liverpool Crown Court, the ECHO reported. Another man, Michael Ashurst, will be sentenced next week while a 10th defendant facing the possibility of further charges will be sentenced at a later date.
Through Operation Spark, set up to investigate the company, police seized cannabis plants with a street value of up to £21 million from more than 100 farms, most of which were occupied by Albanian nationals, acting as gardeners, who said they had been trafficked to the UK. They used specialist equipment stolen to order by Colin White, 62, of Liverpool, who was working for Scottish Power at the time.
Sentencing, Judge David Potter said all the defendants were “driven by greed to continue this illegal trade”. He added: “They did so often in broad daylight and in plain sight. They used the cover of liveried vehicles, signage, barriers and high visibility clothing to appear as though they were carrying out legitimate street works.”
He told the court: “The amount of electricity unlawfully abstracted runs well into the millions.” Huyton man McGinn, 32, led the gang along with 42-year-old Andrew Roberts from Wigan. They were registered as directors – they even had LinkedIn profiles – of Elev8 Civils and Utilities Ltd – a business that was registered legitimately on Companies House as being involved in “construction of water projects”.
Although the gang had been involved in splicing electricity for the drug gangs since at least November 2020, the company was not incorporated by the pair as directors until January 19 2022, with Henry Riding, a barrister who prosecuted the case, telling the court it “suggested the company was set up in furtherance of the conspiracy”.
Legal counsel for both men disputed this. They said this “undermined the integrity” of the legitimate work that the trained workers actually carried out, but it was accepted the company provided good cover for the gang.
The operation was also sizeable, with 54 sites splicing electricity into 100 cannabis farms. The digs included everything from hotels, empty houses and pubs and even a vacated department store.
The unnamed 10th defendant would communicate with McGinn and Andrew Roberts to liaise with the gang. McGinn had been working as a groundworker since his release from prison in 2016 and was said to have taken on the illegal work following cash-flow issues. Andrew Roberts on the other hand had previously owned an electrical company and made repeated references to being able to joint cables.
Gang member Graham Roberts, nicknamed ‘Ganny’, was a cable jointer by trade and was described as an integral part of the gang’s work, responsible for splicing and connecting the live cable to run the new feed to the premises for the intended cannabis farm. Not related to Andrew Roberts, he was the most seen working down a hole wiring or testing circuits.
Black, 29, appeared to have a supervisory role, prosecutors said. He also created the WhatsApp group under the company name in October 2021, where the gang discussed jobs, payments and pick-up and drop-off locations.
When he was arrested for an unrelated matter in October 2022, authorities were able to look into messages in the group chat to gain information about the gang’s movements.
Ashurst, Black, Charles, Doran and Sherry were all groundworkers for the OCG, responsible for digging up the roads to expose the cabling before filling and tarmacking the holes to make the work appear legitimate. The likes of Doran and Sherry were only involved in a handful of the jobs between them and were not part of the WhatsApp group.
Colin White stole equipment for the gang, with around £5,000 worth of kit recovered. The group’s activities came to light when police in North Wales found £1.2 million worth of cannabis plants in an abandoned store on Bangor High Street. CCTV footage reviewed as part of the police investigation showed five men, who arrived in a van bearing company name Elev8, appearing to carry out utility work.
The investigation found they were involved in incidents in England, Scotland and Wales, with forces including the Metropolitan Police, Avon and Somerset, Durham, Gloucestershire, Humberside, Kent, Leicestershire, Norfolk, Northumberland, Thames Valley, West Mercia and South Yorkshire involved. At a search of the company’s base in Wigan, officers found diggers, breakers, generators, vans, motorcycles, and cabling.
Officers believe the gang charged criminals a fixed rate for their services, with McGinn and Roberts, responsible for liaising with crime groups, taking a “significant portion” of that. Police footage from a search of McGinn’s home showed large amounts of cash being discovered.
The two men pleaded guilty to encouraging and assisting an offence believing it will be committed, conspiracy to abstract electricity, and conspiracy to steal. McGinn, on videolink from prison, wiped away tears as he was jailed for five years four months.
Roberts was sentenced to six years. Graham Roberts, 47, of Wigan, who pleaded guilty to encouraging and assisting an offence and conspiracy to abstract electricity, was jailed for five years three months for his key role as the jointer responsible for splicing and connecting live cables.
Black, Charles, Doran, and Sherry all pleaded guilty to encouraging and assisting an offence and conspiracy to abstract electricity. Black was jailed for three years and nine months, Charles for two years and eight months and Doran was sentenced to three years.
Sherry was given a 22-month sentence, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work. White, who stole the equipment, was jailed for two and a half years after pleading guilty to conspiracy to steal and encouraging or assisting the abstraction of electricity.