Paul Marren: Sheffield dealer turned his bail hostel room in Woodhouse into a postal drug business

A Sheffield dealer who sent out drug deals in the post was found with almost £18,000 of illegal substances and over £5,700 in cash after police raided the hostel room where he was staying.

The raid of Paul Marren’s room at the St Anne’s hostel in Beighton Road, Woodhouse, was carried out after staff became concerned he may have illegal items in his room, prosecutor Brian Outhwaite told Sheffield Crown Court on June 5, 2024. 

Mr Outhwaite continued: “Officers attended at the request of staff at the bail hostel, and found signs of drug use, and various signs of the supply of drugs for onward supply.

“The defendant was posting drugs out from that location.”

The total value of the drugs seized from Marren’s room was estimated to be £17,902, with illegal substances of Class A, B and C recovered during the September 2022 raid. 

Among them were heroin, MDMA, ‘magic mushrooms,’ methamphetamines and cannabis. 

Mr Outhwaite said officers also discovered £5,775 in cash, concealed in Marren’s wardrobe. 

“The defendant was arrested in relation to the substances. Police found messages on his mobile phone, confirming drug supply for onward supply,” said Mr Outhwaite. 

He added: “This defendant was effectively running a drug business from his bail hostel room.”

Marren, of Rydalhurst Avenue, Wadsley, Sheffield, pleaded guilty to a number of offences of possessing with intent to supply Class A drugs at an earlier hearing. 

Defending, Richard Adams said Marren fell into ‘Class A drug misuse’ after his relationship broke down, and eventually ended up at St Anne’s after becoming alienated from friends and family. 

Mr Adams said there has been a delay in the case reaching court, and in the intervening period, Marren has had the benefit of a drug rehabilitation activity requirement, which has had the benefit of ‘turning this young man around’. 

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Mr Adams said ‘extreme efforts,’ have been made on the part of Marren’s friends and family to support him.

He described how when Marren’s mother ‘intervened’ in a bid to help him she did not expect to find herself in a situation where he had turned his life around, ‘she expected to be burying him’. 

“Time itself is evidence that he’s turned himself around,” Mr Adams said. 

Passing sentence, Judge Graham Reeds KC said that at the time of his offending, Marren was a ‘small time dealer of drugs,’ which came about when he was a ‘drug user himself’ and began living at the hostel following a period of homelessness. 

He said the offending had been a ‘catalyst’ in Marren turning his life around. 

“I accept you’ve done everything you can to come off drugs,” Judge Reeds said. 

“Your offending is serious, but I accept that you couldn’t reasonably have done more to make amends. That is to your credit.”

Judge Reeds sentenced Marren to two years’ custody, suspended for two years, and ordered him to complete 180 hours of unpaid work and a 15-day rehabilitation activity requirement to help him ‘maintain his abstinence’. 

He also made Marren the subject of an eight-month curfew, which will be in place between 8pm and 6am. 

A timetable for proceeds of crime proceedings was set during the sentencing hearing.