Family behind £1.4m drugs cartel are jailed for more than 50 years after mother, 66, was busted by cops sitting next to a £500,000 pile of cash on her bed - with five people prosecuted

A drug dealing family have been jailed for more than 50 years after the mother was found by police sitting next to nearly £500,000 in cash on her bed.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said Ian Shacklady, 67, his partner Gillian Melville, 66, and her son Alan Causer, 45, traded Class A drugs worth millions of pounds from their homes in Skelmersdale, Lancashire.

At least 790lb (360kg) of cocaine and 55lb (25kg) of heroin were supplied by the family.

Officers discovered nearly half a million pounds when they raided the home of Ian Shacklady and Gillian Melville - catching the crooked mother red-handed while she was sitting next to the huge pile of cash.

The organised crime group, led by son Alan Causer, was locked up for a combined total of more than 50 years today.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that the joint probe by the NCA and Merseyside Police led to their house on Marchbank Road in Skelmersdale being searched on September 15 2021.

Melville was found 'sitting in a bed in one of the bedrooms with neatly stacked piles of cash on the bed to one side of her' totalling £481,375.

Henry Riding, prosecuting, described the 66-year-old as having been 'caught red-handed' with 'multiple bags containing large quantities of cash on the floor at her feet'.

Also, the fingerprints of John Germaine, another conspirator, were found on a number of the bags of cash.

Four kilos of cannabis with an estimated street value of £40,000 was also discovered, as were two 'ledgers' which described in meticulous detail the record of their drug dealing activities.

The ledgers described the movement of more than £1.4m in cash over the previous few months.

Causer's fingerprints were present on these books, with Mr Riding adding: 'They indicated that the half a million pounds recovered from Mr Shacklady and Ms Melville's house was, if not just the tip of an iceberg, only a small proportion of the monies generated by the activities of this organised crime group.'

Officers searched Shacklady's white Peugeot Partner van, which was parked across the street.

They found a 'fairly sophisticated system' within the rear of the vehicle below the floorboards consisting of a hidden switch which revealed a secret compartment for stashing illicit goods.

Also, automatic number plate recognition cameras captured the van 'travelling all over the north of England' including trips to Huyton, Manchester, Grimsby, Derby, Nottingham and the Barnard Castle, Bishop Auckland and Darlington areas of County Durham.

Police then visited Germaine's storage unit on Ringtail Road in Burscough on September 28 2021 and found 9kg of 'high purity' cocaine.

The 35-year-old, of Holt Drive in Ormskirk, previously received nine years and two months in relation to this seizure in May 2022 after being convicted of possession of the class A drug and cannabis with intent to supply and possession of criminal property.

Another defendant, Daniel Heeley, 31, was identified via surveillance undertaken as part of the operation.

Heeley of Rylstone Drive in Heysham, Lancashire was known as 'Morc' in the gang's ledgers - which refers to the Morecambe area where he was based and had a safe house.

Heeley was said to have been 'supplied class A drugs in wholesale, kilogram amounts' by his co-conspirators, with the same van having travelled to the seaside town on 14 occasions.

Shacklady gave a prepared statement during police interview claiming 'he had allowed a person who he wasn't prepared to name to store items at his address, believing it was only money' and that he 'had no idea there were drugs as well'.

The 67-year-old also said that Melville 'had no involvement in the matter'.

When Germaine was interviewed, he 'began by saying 'I knew this was coming''.

He also said he was in debt to 'persons in Liverpool connected with someone whose jaw he had broken in a fight in a nightclub' and then 'began making drug and cash runs' around May 2021, for which he was paid £150 a time.

Causer, of Sherrat Street in Skelmersdale, meanwhile gave no comment to detectives.

When interviewed, his mum said none of the seized cash was hers - other than £6,000 located within her handbag and £11,400 in another bag, which she described as being her 'life savings'.

Healey said he had 'previously used drugs including cocaine and ecstasy on a night out' but 'denied any involvement in the supply of drugs'.

Police showed him pictures of the co-defendants and he said he did not recognise Shacklady, Melville or Germaine but identified Causer - who is also known as Alan Melville - as 'Melv or Merv'.

He said he had purchased an Audi A7 from him in June 2021 for £8,500 in cash.

Heely said he had originally met the 45-year-old at Catts Gym in Orrell, Wigan, which he 'occasionally attended'.

Shacklady has a total of four previous for seven offences, including receiving 33 months for conspiracy to supply cocaine in October 2022 in relation to 'EncroChat material'.

Julian Nutter, defending, told the court he was a 'relatively simple man, and he was recruited for his driving skills'.

Nick Cockrell, representing dad-of-three Germaine, meanwhile said: 'Since he has been in custody, he has essentially been nothing short of a model prisoner - he has used his time constructively to date, and will continue to do so. He is remorseful for his offending.'

Causer has two previous convictions for two offences in 1995 and 2009.

Melville, who used the assistance of a walker in court, has no previous convictions. Stuart Nolan said on her behalf: 'It certainly was not motivated by personal gain and is certainly a one-off offence with little to no planning.

'She was fundamentally of hitherto good character. She is quite frail. She has regularly been admitted to hospital. Due to her mental health, she has been vulnerable for some time.

'Her physical health has been deteriorating for some time. She is a frail woman facing a custodial sentence which she views with great trepidation.'Heeley's criminal record shows three entries for four offences between 2007 and 2011.

Ian Morris, defending the father-of-six, told the court: 'His involvement in this activity was during a period of personal turmoil. He is keen to express his remorse. Clearly, with hindsight, he should never have been involved in this in the first place.

'He has had time to regret his actions. He not only apologises to the court, but is deeply anxious about the loss that he has caused to his family.

'His loss will be great when he is deprived of the time he could have spent with them. He has to accept the consequences of his guilt.'

Shacklady admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine, possession of criminal property and possession of cannabis. He was jailed for 10-and-a-half years.

Germaine and Causer pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine and possession of criminal property. They received 11 years and eight months and 18 years respectively.

Heeley admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine. He was imprisoned for 15 years and three months.

Melville pleaded guilty to possession of criminal property. She received a 23-month imprisonment suspended for 18 months, plus a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 15 days and a 12-month mental health treatment requirement.

Sentencing this morning, Judge Denis Watson KC said: 'This was a very active and high volume business that was being run as a business focussing on the supply of high-quality cocaine, and on occasion heroin as well.

'It supplied to a wide variety of geographical locations.

'This business had been flourishing over a period of three-and-a-half months. The quantities in the ledgers demonstrate that this was a major operation, even by the scale of recent EncroChat cases.'

The judge told Causer: 'You were organising and directing the buying and selling of drugs on a commercial scale. Those were, in reality, your ledgers which revealed an insight into the tenure and productivity of the conspiracy.

Judge Watson said to Melville: 'You must have known exactly what was going on. Your son kept his ledgers at your home and he kept the ill-gotten gains at your address too.

'You knew precisely what your partner and son were up to and how long they had been doing it. Even though you were involved on one day, it is not overstating it to say that you did not have to be asked twice - you acted with your eyes open.

'You are someone of good character. You have poor health to say the very least.

'You are, it seems, blind in one eye. You have COPD, you have sciatica, you have had multiple heart surgeries and your mental health is suffering as well.'