FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Taxpayers spent a whopping £10,000 on an Albanian interpreter for an illegal immigrant cocaine dealer who has long denied his crimes.
Martin Ndreca, 24, pleaded guilty to dealing cocaine in Gloucestershire last week, but not before a large amount of public funds had already been spent on translating thousands of text messages.
Despite receiving 'strong advice' from his defense team, Ndreca had previously chosen to 'ignore' it and refused to 'face up' to his situation, a court heard.
Although he has now pleaded guilty, Ndreca refuses to accept the full extent of his wrongdoing, meaning more public money will have to be spent on a one-to-two day "trial of the case" in May before can be punished.
Speaking at Gloucester Crown Court last week, Judge Ian Lawrie KC said an extraordinary amount of public revenue had been wasted because of a defendant who could not cope with his situation.
"I am sure that Ndreca's defense team had given him strong advice on his case, but he had chosen to ignore it," said the Judge.
Ndreca pleaded guilty on Friday to being concerned in the supply of cocaine between July 18, 2022 and July 11, 2023. He also admitted possession of cocaine with intent to supply between November 28-30, 2022 and again on July 10, 2023.
Prosecutor Daniel White said Ndreca, who had previously denied wrongdoing, had recently "accepted the vast majority of the Crown's case". However, Ndreca contested the prosecution's case regarding the level of his involvement in the drug gang he worked for.
White said the Crown could not accept Ndreca's claim that he was merely a "driver playing a lesser role" and would have to have a Newton hearing, a trial in which a judge hears evidence to decide level of involvement.
"Because of the way Ndreca acted in this case, a large amount of money had to be spent. Over £10,000 in fees for Albanian translators looking at thousands of lines of messages. Now, we will have to instruct and call a cell site expert to give evidence at trial in the case of the whereabouts of the drug phone to see where it was in the week before his arrest,” he said.
Judge Lawrie held that usually when a defendant pleads guilty to his crimes, he is given full credit in terms of a reduced sentence. But not like this. Manveer Chema, defending, told the judge "In terms of the cost of this case, I would not want the defense lawyers or the defense lawyers to be criticized."
Chema asked for more time to see if Ndreca, as an illegal immigrant, had a legal protection of 'modern slavery'. But the judge replied: "Never in a month of Sundays would modern slavery have worked as a defense in this case."
The judge set the dates of May 13 or 14 for the trial and ordered Ndreca to be arrested. The amount of British taxpayers' money used to provide Albanian interpreters for suspected criminals has doubled in the past five years, figures show.
The Ministry of Justice revealed that a record £1.2 million was spent in 2022 providing bilingual staff to communicate legal procedures to Albanians accused of committing crimes in the UK. This is an increase of 35 per cent on the previous year and double the figure of £507,000 recorded six years ago.
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