On June 22, Judge Patrick Thompson of the Chester Crown Court sentenced a London doctor to four years and eight months in prison for selling drugs on the darknet. The doctor, Dr. Tim Kerr, 28, had previously pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to supply Class A drugs, one count of importing illegal substances, and one count of conspiracy to supply Class B drugs.
After meeting fellow student Adrian Tickridge-Day, 27, Dr. Tim Kerr devised a plan that ultimately brought both men thousands of dollars worth of “supplemental income.” Authorities did not reveal many details in court. In part, perhaps, because investigators had gathered very little information about the duo’s operation. The investigation into Dr. Kerr and Tickridge-Day lasted less than a full month.
On March 29, 2016, the Border Force intercepted a package addressed to Day’s home in Chester. The package, prosecutor Mandy Nepal told the court, contained at least 220 ecstasy pills. The ecstasy pills brought the importation drug charge and one of the conspiracy to supply a Class A drug charges. Less than one month later, in April 2016, authorities detained both men at the Manchester Airport. They allowed Dr. Kerr to leave but arrested Day after discovering multiple cell phones and £2,000 in cash on his person. They later searched his home and discovered more ecstasy, cocaine, and ketamine. They also found bags, scales, and other items used in a drug trafficking operation.
Not long after authorities had arrested and searched Day’s house, they connected Dr. Kerr—who had been working at a hospital in Newcastle at the time—to Day’s drug conspiracy through records kept on Day’s electronic devices. Police arrested Dr. Kerr at his home in Bank Avenue, Mitcham, London. The prosecutor never said the police found drugs or drug paraphernalia at the man’s home. Information from his devices, however, proved they had both known and participated in the conspiracy. The cocaine found at Day’s house led to the second conspiracy to supply a Class A substance. The Ketamine brought the conspiracy to supply a Class B substance charge. The importation charge also applied to Dr. Kerr, even though the shipper had sent the drugs to his partner’s house.
Evidence discovered after the arrest of the duo indicated that the men had been selling drugs on the darknet. Prosecutor Nepal revealed that the forensic investigators who had examined the men’s devices had discovered that the men had been selling drugs to a “large customer base.” The prosecutor never told the court the pseudonym the men used on the darknet marketplace(s) they had been selling on or through. The prosecutor did point out, though, that the duo had been “selling abroad as well as in this country.”
Both men pleaded guilty to the same charges. Judge Patrick Thompson sentenced Day, only one month before he sentenced Dr. Kerr. Both men received the same sentence of four years and eight months.