Mum who dealt drugs with sons 'should know better'

A drug-dealing mother and her son have avoided jail after being found guilty of possession with intent to supply cannabis.

Dawn Ellison, 46, and her son Byron Sheffield, 23, both from Bradford, were handed suspended sentences at the city's crown court earlier, having been convicted by a jury following a trial in September.

Ellison's other son, Aidan Ellison, 26, will be sentenced on 3 March after he pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply cocaine and cannabis at an earlier date.

Judge Bryan Cox told him "all options" would be on the table, including prison.

Dawn Ellison and Byron Sheffield were also found guilty of perverting the course of justice after their trial heard how they conspired to hide a phone from police officers, which prosecutor Alisha Kaye said might have contained evidence of them dealing both Class A and Class B drugs.

The phone was found by a police officer in Dawn Ellison's bedroom during a search of the family's home on Grayswood Crescent in July 2023.

Kaye said the officer had placed the phone to one side with a view to seizing it, but Ellison removed it when she went into the room and put it in the pocket of her dressing gown.

It was then passed to Sheffield, who ran from the scene. The device was never recovered.

Kaye said Aidan Ellison had been searched for Class A drugs earlier that day and at the time was living in Dawn Ellison's house.

She told the court a "drug operation" was being run from the address, with quantities of cannabis, as well as drug bags and scales, found during two seperate searches in July and August 2023.

Another phone was also seized in the house which showed evidence of both Class A and Class B drugs being dealt, she added.

Cox said Dawn Ellison, who was also convicted of supplying cannabis in 1996, "wasn't setting a very good example" to her children.

He told her: "You are a mature lady and you should have known better."

Mitigating, Ella Embleton-Brown said Ellison "didn't have control" of the household and told the court Aidan Ellison had been reported to the police for violence towards her.

Cox said Ellison had endured "many unhappy life experiences", including abuse from a former long-term partner, and was dependent on cannabis.

He sentenced her to nine months in prison for perverting the course of justice and a further nine months in prison for possession with intent to supply cannabis, with the 18-month jail term suspended for two years.

She was ordered to take part in a six-month drug treatment and testing programme and complete 20 rehabilitation activity days.

Cox told Sheffield he was "quite satisfied" he "acted through misplaced loyalty" to his mother and brother, adding that he too had suffered from "a series of unhappy life experiences".

He was also sentenced to nine months in prison for perverting the course of justice and handed a six-month jail term for possession with intent to supply cannabis.

His sentence was also suspended for two years, with Sheffield ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and 10 rehabilitation activity days.

Aidan Ellison's sentencing was adjourned until the outcome of a medical assessment into a brain injury he suffered in August, though his barrister Jayne Beckett admitted: "This is a prison sentence in all probability."

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