RUFUS ONYA: HOW UK-BASED NIGERIAN ‘RESPECTED’ NURSE WAS CAUGHT WITH £300k OF COCAINE

A RESPECTED former prison officer who retrained to qualify as a mental health nurse was caught transporting cocaine worth £300,000 through Cumbria, The Cumberland News reports.

Rufus Onya, 47, interrupted a family holiday at Alton Towers to make the illicit trip to Scotland to collect a three-kilogram drugs consignment in return for a payment of £1,000, Carlisle Crown Court heard.

The defendant denied possessing the class A drug with intent to supply, claiming he was unaware that the drugs were hidden in the car.

But the jury rejected that claim, and convicted Onya after hearing evidence during a trial. Police also found almost £6,000 of suspicious cash under a bed at his home in Kent, the court heard.

Prosecutor Matthew Hopkins summarised the facts.

The defendant was driving his wife’s Nissan Qashqai car on the southbound carriageway of the M6 on August 22 when police pulled him over near to Penrith. The police officers found the three kilogram cocaine consignment hidden in the car.

A police search of the defendant’s home led to the discovery of £5,760 in cash – made up of Scottish bank notes – under a bed. When challenged, Onya claimed he had no idea that the drugs were in his car.

But a jury rejected that claim.

“He wasn’t able to provide an explanation for the cash found in his house,” said the barrister, adding that Onya made the long trip to Scotland during a family holiday to Alton Towers in Staffordshire.

Shahnawaz Khan, defending, suggested that the defendant was unaware of the true scale of what he became involved in that day. He said the offence before the court did not reflect the defendant’s character.

The barrister said: “He is a man of good reputation at work and in his community. The tenor of the references is shock that he was involved in a matter like this.”

Since coming to the UK in 2005, the defendant, from Hibernia Court, Greenhithe, Kent, had worked hard to improve his life, completing a first degree in criminology and a second one in nursing.

He worked initially as a prison officer, at one point receiving an award for being the best prison officer. Onya then retrained to become a mental health nurse after completing the second degree.

“He understands that he has to make amends,” said Mr Khan.

Judge Michael Fanning quoted from one of the defendant’s references, written by a former prison officer colleague, who recalled the defendant inspiring him and urging him to use his interpersonal skills to resolve conflicts.

The endorsement was itself endorsed by the prison’s governor.

Onya had also studied to become a nurse to help other people. Yet his offending involved him acting as a drugs courier to make money by spreading “the misery and harm” that illicit drugs inflict on society.

“A lot of the people you will have helped as a mental health nurse will have been damaged by drugs,” said the judge.

Judge Fanning said that the sentences for such offending are significant in order to disrupt the business of being involved in the “filth” that is the drugs trade, fuelling addiction and crime.

“You are fundamentally greedy and fundamentally dishonest,” the judge told Onya, pointing out that sentences had to be significant to show those who involve themselves in the drugs trade what they were risking.

He jailed Onya for eight years