Swindon chef had cocaine buried in garden, Oxford court told

When Arron Staniford came before Oxford Crown Court last week, he was a completely different man to the one who had a tub of cocaine buried in the garden in May 2019, a little over £1,000 in cash, a Tag Heuer Watch, Gucci bag, two sets of scales and a cannabis grinder.

The 31-year-old, who said he was acting under orders from others higher-up the chain, spent years waiting for detectives to either charge him or take no further action.

Staniford was the only one to be charged in connection with what prosecutor Matthew Knight said was the ‘fairly large quantity of cocaine’ in a tub in the Chinnor garden.

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While waiting for the police investigation to catch up, he was given a suspended sentence in November 2021 for dealing cannabis in September 2018.

The court heard he turned his life around and swapped coke for cake.

Defending, George Threlfall said the defendant was a senior chef de partie at a fine dining restaurant.

He said: “He does all the starters.

"They’re quite sophisticated dishes he’s asked to prepare - quite difficult dishes.

"The other thing he deals with exclusively is the High Tea; the scones, the cakes."

He asked the judge, Recorder John Ryder KC, to exercise a degree of mercy and spare his client an immediate prison sentence.

Others who were apparently more involved in the drugs operation with which Staniford got involved had seemingly gone unpunished.

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And he noted that the talented young chef had managed to turn his life around.

Mr Threlfall said: “It would be a grave pity to jeopardise everything this man has worked for.”

He feared his client’s ‘spirit’ was ‘at risk of being broken’ if he were incarcerated and added: “He’s facing the music for what others have done.”

Staniford, of Albion Street, Swindon, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to possession with intent to supply cocaine and possession of cannabis.

Sentencing, Recorder Ryder said: “It appears that your involvement with drugs had led you to accrue various debts and you began dealing in these substances as a way of paying off those debts.

“The problem is that cycle is repeated again and again and again with the result that the circulation of these pernicious and destructive substances continues.”

He imposed a 22 month jail sentence suspended for a year and a half, saying that sending Staniford to prison would be ‘entirely counter-productive’.

He must complete up to 50 rehabilitation activity requirement days.