A YORK taxi driver has been jailed for eight years for running a major heroin and cocaine business from his hackney carriage.

Howard Simon Yockney kept hard drugs worth more than £60,000 in his garage and used his taxi business as a cover as he delivered them to addicts, York Crown Court heard.

But detectives mounted a lengthy undercover operation to investigate him and pounced as he drove back from Leeds in his taxi with £1,200 of heroin to add to his stash.

Today, a convicted drugs gang member, he is behind bars and faces legal moves to find and confiscate the proceeds of his drug deals. He is unlikely ever be granted a licence to drive a taxi again.

“I am satisfied you played a significant part in the conspiracy,” Judge Roger Ibbotson told Yockney.

The outwardly respectable father-of-two, of Hart Hill Crescent, Full Sutton, near York, denied a charge of conspiracy to supply drugs between January and July last year, but was convicted after an eight-day trial.

Yockney, 43, initially showed no emotion as the jury returned its verdict, but then bent forward and hid his face. His barrister Stephen Grattage, said he had no mitigation, though he did have health problems and suffered from depression.

Co-accused Nigel Kenneth Elders, 36, of Park Place, Huntington Road, York, shouted “yes” as the jury acquitted him of the same charge and joined others in the public gallery to await the verdict of the third alleged member of the conspiracy – Benjamin James Enwright, 24, of Vincent Way, Foxwood.

When Mr Enwright was also acquitted, his supporters erupted into cheers. Court staff ensured they left the public gallery.

Mr Elders and Mr Enwright told the jury they were addicts who bought drugs from Yockney.

Richard Haswell, City of York Council’s head of licensing services, revealed Yockney’s taxi licence was suspended when he was arrested in July 2009 and has since expired. He would have to reapply if he wanted to drive a taxi again.

“Applicants with convictions for offences involving drugs will not usually be considered fit and proper to hold a taxi drivers licence,” said Mr Haswell.

Yockney claimed in evidence he had run up big debts to several people and he lived on housing benefit and social security after his long-time home was repossessed by a mortgage company.

Mr Grattage suggested he may have been looking for ways to reduce his debt. The judge said: “I don’t know that the picture painted of his finances is genuine”, but added he had no evidence Yockney lived a luxury lifestyle.

The judge commended Det Con Peter Benthall, the officer in the case, and phone analyst Michelle Slade, for their “meticulous” work which had brought Yockney to justice.