A FUNDRAISING ice cream man has been jailed for more than three years for his "significant role" in a south Essex drugs gang.
Perry Scopes, formerly of Elm Road in Grays, was the subject of glowing stories by the BBC and the Sun newspaper this January after he pushed a shopping trolley over 300 miles to raise cash for a children's special needs charity.
He ultimately raised around £60,000, Southend Crown Court heard on Tuesday (October 7).
But just six months later, police raided his home in connection with a drugs investigation.
Urging Judge Samantha Cohen to let his client walk free, defence barrister Mark Tomassi said Scopes would use his freedom to complete another charity feat: rollerblading from Rome to Grays.
But that plan will now have to wait.
Scopes, 39, pleaded guilty in August to being concerned in the supply cocaine.
At that hearing, it was revealed the charity fundraiser was already serving a suspended sentence for previous Class A drug-dealing offences.
On June 14, 2024, he had been given an 18-month sentence, suspended for 18 months.
Seven months later, he was the subject of national media coverage for his charity trek.
But in August, he admitted he had secretly continued dealing drugs all along.
He pleaded guilty to dealing cocaine from Jun 13, 2024, to July 9, 2025 - meaning he carried on committing the crime even on the very day his suspended sentence was imposed.
He appeared for sentence on Tuesday alongside Darren Shrubb, 55, of Broadway in Grays, who also pleaded guilty in August to being concerned in the supply of cocaine.
The pair were snared by an Essex Police investigation into a drugs phone line linked to dealing activity in Thurrock.
On July 8, police raided both men’s homes.
At Scopes’ home, police found over £6,000, a Nokia phone, five bags of cannabis and empty deal bags.
At Shrubb’s home, officers seized white powder, a black Nokia phone and £70 cash. The phone turned out to be the drugs line.
Prosecutor Siobhan Cawkwell said analysis of messages on phones showed Scopes had been Shrubb’s boss in the drugs line and had held “a significant role”.
"It may seem as if the defendant has, with a degree of cynicism and recklessness, not abided by the terms of your order," Mr Tomassi told Judge Cohen of his client's prior suspended sentence.
"It must be somewhat galling to have, as it were, taken a decision very much in his interests, which appears to have been so happily spurned."
But, he said, Scopes - who had convictions for 16 prior offences, including production of Class B drugs - had at various times "been either addicted or heavily dependent" on drugs, which had led to his own criminality.
"Free of drugs, he is likely to be free of crime," said Mr Tomassi. "He is free of drugs now. He means to keep free of drugs."
Shrubb was described by his defence barrister Christopher Martin as a renowned local chef and a dedicated father and grandfather who had succumbed to drug dependency and associated crime.
"He has actually kept these proceedings from his children because of the shame that he feels," said the lawyer.
He had convictions for seven prior offences, including permitting the use of his premises for the production of a controlled drug.
Shrubb was now free of Class A drugs and hoped he could work with the probation service to tackle his Class B use, said Mr Martin.
Dealing with Scopes first, Judge Cohen said: "Your role in this was to run the cottage industry."
His crimes were aggravated by having been committed "immediately" after receiving his suspended sentence, she said.
"I don't take it personally," she added. "I don't think that I was wrong to take a chance on you the first time around."
She sentenced him to 32 months for the new offence, with six months of his prior suspended sentence to run consecutively.
She ordered that the £6,000 seized from his home be donated to a homelessness charity.
Shrubb was sentenced to a 20-month suspended sentence with a rehabilitation requirement.
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