A FAMILY-RUN criminal network that supplied a 'drugs convenience store' in York has been brought to justice.

After nine hours, a jury returned guilty verdicts on Yasmin Biggs, 62 and her son Edward Wharton, 32, and declared that another son Ethan Wharton, 36, had been part of the conspiracy.

They also convicted Ethan Wharton’s then girlfriend Rosemary Smith, 28, and fellow conspirator Simon Hall, 44, of Whitbank Road, Darlington

The jury heard Hall had been part of a similar drug pipeline in the past and has two previous convictions for trafficking in Class A drugs.

Following his conviction, Judge Roger Thomas QC revealed he was facing a minimum seven year sentence.

All six will return to Bradford Crown next month to be sentenced alongside Kesser Hussain, 24. All apart from Hussain, and Ethan Wharton, had denied the charges against them.

The verdicts bring to nine the number of related drug criminals now in jail or facing custody.

The jury heard that Ethan Wharton made regular trips to Bradford to buy drugs from Hussain, based at Kismet Gardens, Bradford. He was accompanied at different times by his brother, Smith and Hall.

The drugs were delivered to a 'heroin and cocaine convenience shop' run by Craig Laing, 38, his sister Chantelle Kimberley Francesca Laing, 31, and Shayne Garnett, 47, at their flat in Lowther Street, York, close to Biggs’ flat in Cole Street, where her sons both lived at times.

The Laings and Garnett were jailed for a total of nearly 20 years last autumn for drug dealing offences committed between July 22 and August 12, 2015 and May 31 and June 24, 2016.

York Crown Court heard last October they had been pressurised into selling drugs and had had to hand over all their profits to others higher up the chain.

Biggs was convicted of handling nearly £3,000 of drugs money found at her flat on November 2, 2014. The jury heard a few weeks’ earlier an electrician found what looked like drugs in a Tesco Bag For Life which she had hidden in a locked council cupboard in a block of flats next to her own.

He alerted police, who arrived quickly, but in the meantime, she had removed the bag and put what she claimed were Christmas gifts in it and she was not charged over the alleged drugs.

Edward Wharton, Smith, of Hewley Avenue, Tang Hall, and Hall were all convicted of conspiracy to supply drugs in 2015 between June 1 and November 4.

The jury heard they acted as drivers and couriers for Ethan Wharton for the Bradford to York journeys.

Ethan Wharton was not in the dock because psychiatrists had decided he was unfit to stand trial, but the jury found that he had committed the acts of the conspiracy charge and a separate charge of possessing cocaine with intent to supply it a year earlier.

His barristers are now seeking psychiatric reports so the judge can consider sectioning him under the Mental Health Act in a secure hospital.

The jury acquitted Michael Smith, 39, of James Street Caravan Site, York, of the cocaine charge which he denied.

He told them he had travelled with Ethan Wharton to Leeds and back to buy CDs and knew nothing about the cocaine police found discarded near Askham Bryan on part of their route.

Edward Wharton was remanded in custody. He had been released from jail in October 2015 from a sentence for fraud shortly before he got involved in the drugs conspiracy.

Biggs and Rosemary Smith were released on bail while probation officers prepare pre-sentence reports on them.

The judge said he should remand Hall, who has epilepsy, in custody but decided not on hearing that he was ill.

Hall’s barrister Reginald Bosomworth said he had suffered so much from stress during the trial although he had been brought in a van to court for the verdicts, he was not fit enough to go into the dock. Hall was released on bail.