Grade II-listed Methodist Sunday school where middle-class couple ran £60,000-a-year cocaine racket

The Grade II-listed building where a middle class couple were on course to run a £60,000-a-year cocaine operation has been pictured.

Jordan Heeley, 31, and his girlfriend Alexandra Ditcham, 28, ran their operation from a £150,000 apartment inside the former Methodist Sunday school building in Macclesfield, Cheshire.

It comes after the couple, a law firm worker and social worker trainee, were jailed for 28 months each after a judge warned that having good jobs did not grant them ‘special status.

They earned £13,000 in profit in just ten weeks by supplying friends who would use the cocaine at social gatherings.

After the couple admitted drug dealing, their lawyers urged a judge to impose suspended sentences, producing 23 glowing testimonials from fellow professionals calling for clemency.

The Grade II-listed former Methodist Sunday school (pictured) where a middle class couple were on course to run a £60,000-a-year cocaine operation

Alexandra Ditcham, 28, a social worker trainee, has been jailed for 28 months for her part in the operation

However, Judge Steven Everett gave them 28 months each, telling them: ‘You are not special people.’

He said some young people had a ‘devil-may-care’ attitude to cocaine. He added: ‘They might say, ‘It’s just drugs, lots of us do it, therefore it’s not that serious’ but in actual fact it is just the reverse. You were selling a dangerous drug. I see people who take cocaine, steal, rob and burgle just to fund their addiction for this terrible drug.’

Judge Everett said the couple knew that cocaine was responsible for ‘a huge problem in our society’. Saying he took ‘a serious view’ of their actions, he added: ‘It was not to fund an addiction or pay off debts, you wanted more money. You are not special people. You are two people who made the decision to sell this evil drug.’

Police raided the couple’s two-bedroom apartment in Macclesfield, Cheshire, in April 2021 after being tipped off about ‘drug activity’ there, prosecutor Peter Hussey told Chester Crown Court.

Heeley was found by a kitchen worktop with empty snap bags and a digital scale. Details of drug deals starting at £20 were found on the couple’s phones.

The flat was used to ‘weigh out and bag up the drugs deals’, Mr Hussey said, before the cocaine was supplied among ‘a known circle of contacts’.

Heeley and Ditcham both pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of cocaine and money laundering.

Sentencing the couple, Judge Everett said: ‘Whatever your background, whoever you are, if you sell this evil drug you can expect to go to prison and that is where you are going.’

Jordan Heeley, 31, a law firm worker, was also handed 28 months in jail for his part in the operation

The couple earned £13,000 in profit in just ten weeks by supplying friends who would use the cocaine at social gathering (File image)