Mother who made £145,000 selling drugs through WhatsApp has to pay back £5,000

A mother who ran a large-scale drug “pharmacy” from her home and made a £145,000 has been ordered by the courts to pay back just £5,000.

Shalane Hodder, 36, of Philip Street, Trinant, imported drugs from Siberia and India and sold them using messaging service WhatsApp. Earlier this year she was jailed for two and a half years.

A Proceeds of Crime Act hearing at Cardiff Crown Court, held on Thursday, April 29, was told that Hodder had made £145,420.85 selling the drugs. However, the available figure she was able to pay back was £4,937.62.

Hodder now has three months to pay, otherwise she will serve an additional three months in jail.

Hodder was sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court on January 29, having pleaded guilty to 24 offences – including importing drugs, supplying class B and C drugs and possession with intent to supply drugs.

More than 90,000 tablets were found at Hodder’s home and at her caravan on Pen y Fan park, near Trinant, worth more than £112,000.

Between January and September 2019, the mother-of-one received nearly £150,000 for her exploits.

Hodder used the bank accounts of her partner, Laurie Parfitt, 31, of Philip Street, and brother Rhys Dee, 28, of Belvedere Close, Trinant, to launder money.

Parfitt and Dee both pleaded guilty to possession of criminal property.

Parfitt was given a 12-month community order and made to do 50 hours of unpaid work. Dee was also handed a 12-month community order, and given an electronicaly-monitored four-month curfew.

Police carried out a drugs raid at Hodder’s home in September 2019.

Mitigating for Hodder at her original sentence hearing, Thomas Stanway told the court how the defendant wanted to provide financial security for her two-year-old daughter, having experienced a difficult childhood herself.

Mr Stanway also spoke about Hodder’s struggle with anxiety having been the victim of a homophobic attack aged 17, which led to a codeine addiction.