A DRUG conspirator used Worcester hotels as bases to deal heroin and crack cocaine, assaulting the suspicious assistant manager who tried to stop him.

Kyle Williams is now behind bars after he set up a drugs business using two city hotels as centres to deal crack cocaine and heroin, foiled by hotel staff who alerted police.

The 32-year-old trafficker from Birmingham used the Travelodge in Cathedral Plaza and the Premier Inn in New Road as bases but also had keys to a property in The Tything where he planned to set up a more permanent base.

The father-of-four of Deakins Road, Yardley, had already admitted conspiracy to supply crack and heroin and possession with intent to supply both class A drugs when he appeared at Worcester Crown Court on Wednesday for sentence.

The Blue Line County Lines conspiracy lasted between July 14 and November 4 last year when Williams, wearing a hood, fled via a fire escape from the city’s Premier Inn when hotel staff became suspicious. From there he escaped, flying to Thailand.

As he fled the hotel he dropped the dirty Blue Line phone used to send out adverts to drug users and manage Worcester runners and street dealers.

Paul Whitfield, prosecuting, said: “The Crown’s case is that this defendant was at the centre of a web of drug distribution.”

The prosecution identified 13 dates when the defendant was in city hotels before he signed a tenancy for renting premises in The Tything in October.

Two of the defendant’s runners - Michael Duffy and Philip Powell - had already been jailed for possession with intent to supply class A drugs when their boss, Williams, appeared in court. Duffy, 39, got 32 months and Powell, aged 42, got 49 months in jail.

Mr Whitfield said Williams’s girlfriend would book the hotel rooms for him.

Williams met Duffy on September 12 last year at St Martin’s Gate car park, handing him a bag containing drugs. On September 19 another of Williams’s runners was arrested in Grandstand Road. He was found with 26 wraps of heroin and 60 wraps of crack cocaine with a street value of £860 and £260 in cash.

Paperwork from the city’s Travelodge was found in possession of dealers. Powell was dealing in Cripplegate Park on October 4 last. In his possession was £200 in cash and a phone and Williams’s number stored in it as a contact for the sale of drugs. On October 18 last year Powell was caught in possession of 14 wraps of crack and 26 of heroin and £129 in cash. Williams was ejected from the Travelodge on October 19 last year due to the smell of drugs coming from his hotel room, leaving behind a weapon described as ‘a sabre’. From there he moved to the Premier Inn but staff there also became suspicious because of the smell of drugs. On November 4 last year the assistant manager let herself into the room using a master key where she found evidence of drug activity. She called police. Williams later came to the hotel reception to complain of poor internet reception and the ‘penny dropped’ as staff realised this was the man who had the room. They tried to prevent the defendant returning to the room and Mr Whitfield said it was then Williams ‘manhandled’ the female assistant manager, ‘throwing her around and causing her injuries’ (though there was no charge in relation to this). Mr Whitfield described Williams scooping up various items including a quantity of white powder and putting them in a hold-all before leaving via the fire escape. One of Williams’s alleged runners went to the hotel to try and recover items from the room but fled when police arrived. In the room was found £1,900 of heroin and crack and £500 in cash. There were also pairs of clear plastic gloves used to store the 190 wraps. Keys were also found to a property in The Tything and the Blue Line phone which Williams had dropped. The phone contained advert messages including ‘blue on’ and special offers (two for £15).

Williams left the country, flying to Thailand but was arrested at Heathrow Airport when he returned to the UK on June 5 this year.

Joseph Keating, defending, said: “There’s no evidence to suggest he’s the top of the chain as it were, the top of the pyramid.”

He said his client had gone to Thailand because he was ‘extremely scared’ and ‘knew what was coming’, returning to the UK because he missed his four children.

A letter from the defendant’s mother says he was ‘amazing with his children’.

Judge Nicolas Cartwright said Williams was motivated by financial advantage and well aware of the scale of the operation, ‘not least because you were the one transporting the class A drugs to Worcester’ and ‘the one who prepared them in the fingertips of gloves from a petrol station for onward supply’.

He said: “The aggravating features are that this was run as a business using hotels as trading bases here in Worcester. It was operating in such a way over a period of three and a half months.”

However, he acknowledged that Williams was a devoted father spoken of highly by a previous employer. Yet the judge noted he had managed to accumulate 40 convictions.

Giving him credit for his early guilty pleas, the judge jailed him for four years and four months. Loud sobbing followed from the public gallery where the defendant’s mother watched the sentence.

A proceeds of crime application to deal with the cash seized by police had also been drawn up.