Posted on the 13th November 2025 in PHTM News

BIRKENHEAD CABBIE JAILED FOR SIX YEARS FOR SELLING ECSTASY AND COKE IN £100K DRUG SIDELINE

A former taxi driver who used his cab as a front for a secret drug-dealing sideline - including the sale of "Donald Trump-shaped" ecstasy pills—has been jailed for six years.

Paul Duggan, 45, of Birkenhead, was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court after police seized Class A substances potentially worth over £100,000 from his home, including a kilo of cocaine.

The court heard that Duggan, a registered hackney cab driver, used his own personal phone number as a "graft line" to supply cocaine and ecstasy across Merseyside between March and August of this year. Police evidence showed the device "co-located with the movements" of his taxi vehicle.

Prosecutor Jonathan Keane described how messages on Duggan's phone documented "frequent transactions for ecstasy tablets and high purity cocaine." In one message to a non-paying customer, Duggan wrote: "You're taking me for a divvy, you know. Five weeks this."

Police executed a search warrant at his home on August 6, where Duggan confessed there was a "large quantity of drugs in the address."

  • An Aldi carrier bag recovered from a bedroom contained digital scales and 45 knotted packages of white powder and rocks.

  • The total seizure included 1.163kg of cocaine (valued between £41,450 and £89,850) and 1,323 MDMA tablets(valued from £6,615 to £13,230), as well as £620 in cash.

  • Four "Donald Trump shaped pills" were found when his vehicle was searched.

John Rowan, defending, explained that Duggan had been struggling with his own addiction to Class A drugs and financial problems. He stated that Duggan regretted taking an "opportunity" to primarily bag drugs for someone else before beginning to supply users directly.

Rowan told the court: "He knows, because he has personal experience of it, the devastation and misery that Class A drugs cause... Mr Duggan then took the opportunity himself to start supplying directly to users, both cocaine and MDMA."

Duggan admitted possession of cocaine and ecstasy with intent to supply and being concerned in their supply.

Sentencing, Judge Robert Trevor Jones said: "People who involve themselves in the supply of controlled drugs can expect to go prison... certainly, when those drugs are class A drugs, they can expect significant sentences."

The Judge noted that Duggan's arrest appeared to be a "warning shot," adding: "I hope that you do, and you can put this down as a serious and very sorry aberration in your life." Duggan, who has no previous convictions, nodded as he was jailed.


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