Drug trio warned that they could face prison

Christopher Backhouse, Samuel Swift and George Baker-Davis have been warned they will probably be locked up for supplying drugs.

Backhouse, 25, is the son of former Scarborough mayor Andrew Backhouse, who supported his son throughout the court proceedings.

The trio appeared at York Crown Court on Friday, where Backhouse and Baker-Davis admitted conspiring to supply M-Cat.

Baker-Davis also admitted conspiring to supply cannabis with Swift, 19, of Lady Edith’s Park.

Baker-Davis, 19, of Coldyhill Lane, also pleaded guilty to possessing Class B amphetamine with intent to supply. He also admitted driving while unfit through drugs in Burniston Road.

Ahead of a possible jail stint, Baker-Davis has admitted he is terrified at what could await him when the group are sentenced next month.

Co-defendant Backhouse, of High Street, Burniston, has said he has turned his life around since his arrest.

“The thought of going to prison is very, very scary,” former Scalby School pupil Baker-Davis told The Scarborough News.

“I will lose my job and I will end up going on the dole when I come out – it will mess me up massively.”

The teenager said that he turned to drugs after hitting a “hard time in my life”, eventually supplying them as a way to afford his habit.

His comments are echoed by Backhouse, who said: “This is something I deeply regret and would not be involved in again.

“It was a bad period of my life, sucked in with the wrong people and out of character.”

Backhouse also admitted a further charge of supplying ketamine, a Class B drug, between January 1 and 5 this year.

His father Andrew, a borough councillor who was mayor in 2013/14, said: “As parents we are gutted, but that doesn’t stop me being a parent and that won’t stop me being there for him at every step of the way.

“We are standing by him because we are his parents, as any parent would and should.”

All the offences are understood to have taken place over a relatively short period of time.

Judge Peter Benson told the defendants to expect a 
custodial sentence but adjourned sentence for reports because of their young ages and lack of previous convictions.

All three men were bailed until the sentence hearing on September 1.

Samuel Swift didn’t respond to our request for a comment.