10 years for boss who turned to drug dealing

A BUSINESSMAN who made a 'catastrophic' decision after his firm was affected by a flood and debts has been jailed for a decade.

-  ANDREW BARDSLEY

Nathaniel Conteh, 43, turned to drug dealing after experiencing problems with his business.

He was found out following the law enforcement hacking of the EncroChat network, a shady communications system used by criminals who believed it allowed them to offend with impunity.

But Conteh, from Whitefield, Bury, was among the latest to be prosecuted as a result of his own messages.

"You put down the origin of your dealing to the problems experienced in your business by reason of a flood and then getting into debt, and that debt being enforced," Judge Nicholas Dean KC told Conteh, before jailing him for 10 years. "It seems to me that dealing in drugs became for you an alternative for a business, and indeed to an extent a profitable form of business."