A WOMAN who cheated drug users by selling them fake cocaine has been given a suspended prison sentence.

Lauren Wright, 30, sent out thousands of messages via her phone claiming to have the illegal drug and offering it for sale, said Anne Richardson, prosecuting.

But she was lying.

Some of the drug users who gave her money received crushed up paracetamol and others didn’t get anything in return.

She told police she used the cash to fund her own drug habit.

The scheme ran for months until police closed it down, said Ms Richardson at York Crown Court. 

“She was in effect defrauding her customers,” said the Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris. “Ripping off people who take cocaine. I have no sympathy for them. If they get ripped off, they get ripped off.”

But, he warned, what she was giving the drug users could be harmful because any drug taken to excess could be dangerous.

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Wright, then of Fenton Drive, West Ayton, pleaded guilty to offering to supply cocaine to others.

She was given a 16-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months on condition she does six months’ drug rehabilitation and 25 days’ rehabilitative activities.

“I find it hard to believe it was your idea,” he told Wright. She did not reply.

Defence barrister Emily Hassell said Wright had had a long-standing drug habit and had found herself in “a very difficult situation”.

In 2022, when she was carrying out the deception, she had been a heavy user of cocaine and amphetamine and in a very difficult relationship.

“Her mental health and her substance misuse spiralled completely out of control,” said the defence barrister.

In the 18 months between being arrested and charged, Wright had turned her life around. She had left the relationship and had worked with a drug rehabilitation agency to kick her habit.

The judge said he had seen drug test results showing she was clean of drugs and read an “impressive” testimonial from her former employer.

Ms Richardson said police found out what Wright had been doing when they received information that her phone was being used for sending out bulk messages offering cocaine for sale. They raided her home and found her phone.