A FAMILY’S plans to emigrate will not go ahead after the parents were found guilty of drug dealing.

Farm worker Ian Stabler had bought tickets for a new life in New Zealand when police raided his home in Darlington, in January, last year.

He has now been jailed for three years for drugs offences, and his conviction means he is unlikely to be allowed into New Zealand, a court was told.

Newly-wed Stabler, 46, and his wife, Suzanne, 41, were arrested at their home in Wilkes Street, after an undercover operation.

Officers befriended dealers who operated in the town centre at weekends, and bought drugs from them, Teesside Crown Court heard.

The dealers were supplied by former block-paving firm owner Stabler on five occasions over two months from November 2008.

Stabler’s wife also answered the phone to a street dealer and passed on a request for cocaine.

Officers from Operation Harewood raided the couple’s home on January 10, after spending two months amassing evidence against them.

Drugs were found in Stabler’s car and more than £2,000 was discovered in a bedroom, said Richard Bennett, prosecuting.

Police also seized documents showing recent large cash payments – £1,000 for a television and a £5,000 holiday.

Dan Cordey, mitigating for Stabler, said the father-ofthree could not prove where his money came from, but it was not all from drug dealing.

He was a seasonal worker seven days a week at a farm in Ripon, after his paving business folded in the recession.

Mr Cordey asked the judge not to be too suspicious about expensive purchases, even though the couple survived some months on benefits.

Peter Makepeace, mitigating for mother-of-four Stabler, said she might have been unaware of the extent of her husband’s drug dealing.

He said the couple had been married during the course of the dealing, and had only lived together since they were charged last year.

Mr Makepeace said Stabler had dedicated herself to her children, and has moved the family to Harrogate.

She was given an eightmonth prison sentence, suspended for two years, with supervision and 120 hours of unpaid community work. She was also ordered to pay £200 costs after she pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs.

Her husband was jailed for three years after he admitted five identical charges, and a charge of possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply.

Judge John Walford said he was prepared to accept Mrs Stabler was a “conduit” in one deal, but said her husband was higher than a street dealer.

He told them: “It is well known that drugs, particularly Class A drugs, ruin people’s lives, and blight communities, as has happened in Darlington.”