8:06 am, January 24, 2023
A used car dealer, who also featured on Channel 4’s First Dates, has been jailed for his involvement in a £1.5m heroin ring.
Joey Shaw worked as a used car salesman in West Yorkshire and enjoyed a brief spell of fame when appearing on the popular dating show in 2017.
However, his lothario days would now appear to be behind him after he was handed a six-and-a-half-year stretch for selling class A drugs.
The 28-year-old admitted conspiracy to supply both cocaine and heroin and has now been sentenced at Bradford Crown Court.
The court heard that Shaw was arrested following a tip off which led police to raid several houses connected to him and his brother Daniel.
Once inside, officers found a total of 31kg of heroin and £100,000 in cash.
Both brothers pleaded guilty to involvement in the operation, with Daniel handed a ten-and-a-half-year sentence.
West Yorkshire Police, which carried out the sting operation, described the sentences as a ‘fantastic result’.
©West Yorkshire Police
Detective Chief Inspector Andy Farrell Head of Bradford District CID said: ‘This is a fantastic result for Bradford District, not only have we removed a significant amount of drugs off the streets but we have put behind bars two men fuelling those streets with drugs.
‘We regularly see the harm that Class A drugs cause both to the individual users and to our communities where they fuel crime and anti-social behaviour that impacts on ordinary people’s lives.’
During his TV stint, Shaw provided one of First Dates’ most memorable moments when he was paired up with a woman he had already ‘knew’.
He and date Jodie had actually met on the train down to shoot the show and, unaware they were to be coupled up, spent the night together prior to shooting.
The encounter led to some awkward exchanges once the cameras were turned on with the car salesman escaping to the toilets during dinner to phone his friend and tell him what had happened.
Reacting to his sentence, another friend of Shaw’s told the Sun: ‘He seemed like a normal guy working as a car dealer. There was no indication he was involved in drugs’.
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