Gemma Shea, 38, of Leys Close, Dagenham, pleaded guilty to two charges of being concerned in the supply of heroin and cocaine at Basildon Crown Court on Thursday (October 30).
Her co-defendant Justin Lynch, 42, of Volta Close, Enfield, had already admitted two counts of possession with intent to supply, two counts of being concerned in the supply and one count of possessing criminal property.
Unlike Shea, he was sent to prison.
The court heard they had sold drugs to almost 800 customers in five months, between November 2024 and March 2025.
Their illegal activities were centred around Thurrock.
The pair came into Essex Police’s sights when a phone seized in another investigation turned up marketing messages from what was “clearly a drugs line”, said prosecutor Rachel Law.
An investigation linked the phone number to two vehicles, both connected to Lynch.
When police compared data from his personal phone number to that of the drugs line, they found the two were in the same place on more than 2,000 occasions across Essex, London and High Wycombe.
Shea had paid for a credit top-up on the drugs phone just ten minutes before it sent out a mass marketing message.
Police raided an address in Dagenham, arrested Shea and found cocaine and heroin inside, “most of it wrapped and ready for sale,” said Mrs Law.
They also found scales, a contact list and two phones previously used for the drugs line.
Police raided two addresses linked to Lynch. At one, in High Wycombe, they found around £10,000 in cash.
At the other, in London, they found deal bags, sim cards and the drugs line phone itself, which Lynch tried to hide by tossing it into a neighbour’s garden.
Both answered “no comment” to all questions in their police interviews.
Lynch had convictions for 11 prior offences, though none for drug dealing and none since 2008.
Shea was of “positive good character”, Judge Samantha Cohen determined, after hearing she had no prior convictions or cautions and had devoted her life to helping vulnerable children.
After training as a paediatric nurse, she had gone to work for an unnamed local authority, visiting disadvantaged children in their homes.
She lost the job after her arrest.
The court also heard she was a mother of three and a grandmother of two.
“Class A drugs are the scourge of decent society,” said Judge Samantha Cohen.
“They impact on the lives of those who use them because they devastate their health.
“They are responsible for public disorder, which is often seen on the streets of this area because people who are involved in the sale of drugs often carry weapons, often use weapons.
“They ruin the lives of people who are involved in their sale, as you two both know. Mrs Shea, you have lost your good character, you have lost a career, and Mr Lynch, you have lost your liberty.”
She sentenced Lynch to three years in prison, but said Shea’s situation was “very different”.
Shea, she said, was a mother to three children who all had additional needs and seemed to have become involved because it was “so different from the rest of your life that perhaps, for a short time, it seemed exciting, although I’m sure the shine came off fairly rapidly, by which time you were fairly entrenched.”
In light of her “ongoing role in your children’s lives and the lives of your two grandchildren,” said Judge Cohen, jailing Shea would have “a grossly disproportionate impact on the lives of other people who are completely innocent in all this”.
She sentenced Shea to 18 months in prison, suspended for 18 months, with requirements to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and up to 40 days of rehabilitation activities.
A hearing will take place next summer to determine whether the authorities can seize any money or assets from Lynch or Shea as “proceeds of crime”.
Essex Police said the investigation into this case led to “wider action” by the Metropolitan Police and Thames Valley Police.
