A chef and food-bank worker who moonlighted as a magic-mushroom dealer has narrowly avoided jail for supplying the Class A psychedelic drug – along with chocolate-coated cannabis edibles and illicit prescription tablets.
Toby Bach orchestrated his own dealing enterprise, unbeknown to colleagues, and became a “one-stop shop” for all manner of illegal substances, York Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Rhianydd Clement said police swooped on Bach’s home in York in April 2022, only to be told by another householder that he had left the property with “six bags of drugs and paraphernalia” which he had put inside his car.
Officers turned up at his workplace and noticed a “strong smell of cannabis” around his vehicle.
They searched the car and subsequently his bedroom where they found a stash of drugs and paraphernalia including six bags of magic mushrooms which weighed just over 105g and were “split into drug measures”. The mushrooms had a street value of up to £940.
Officers also found 26 vape cartridges containing Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – the psychoactive constituent of cannabis, along with 24 packs of vape liquid suffused with cannabis oil. The combined package had an estimated street value of between £1,180 and £1,560.
Police also discovered a carrier bag containing herbal cannabis and “flowering heads” weighing just over 189g and with a combined street value of about £950.
The cache also included “THC extracts”, cannabis resin and three packets of cannabis-infused white chocolate. Officers also found illicit prescription drugs including 43 Diazepam tablets.
Several dealer bags were seized from Bach’s home and vehicle, and police found messages on his phone showing that he had been dealing “from at least 2018”.
These texts, which included overtures to customers about his “products and prices” and references to users “owing a debt to the defendant”, were recovered despite Bach, 31, refusing to disclose his mobile’s PIN number to police.
Photos found on the phone included pictures of “cannabis and other drugs including what looks like some grow and harvested cannabis”, although Bach, 31, was never accused of, nor charged with, cultivation.
Bohemian attitude
Bach, of Darnborough Street, was charged with three counts of possession with intent to supply Class B drugs, one count of possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply and possessing a Class C drug with the same intent.
He admitted the offences and appeared for sentence onThursday (30 August).
Ms Clement said that Bach had conducted the illicit enterprise under his own steam, adding: “Individuals were in debt to him and the defendant appeared to have control over the operation.”
Defence barrister Shannon Woodley said that Bach, who was a chef at the time and who worked part-time at a food bank, was “clearly someone who is very well thought of, both by the community and his family members”.
She said that Bach was a drug user at the time, taking opiate-based drugs such as Diazepam. He was an “occasional user” of cannabis but he “wouldn’t touch synthetic or psychoactive substances again”.
Judge Sean Morris said the texts on Bach’s phone showed he was a “one-stop shop for all sorts of things” and told the defendant: “You should hang your head in shame”.
“You are a bit of an odd character – in my view a bit of a Walter Mitty,” added Mr Morris.
“You have been working (as a part-time food-bank worker). The trouble is, you turned yourself into a little part-time dealer.”
The judge said the many character testimonies showed the good that Bach had otherwise done for the community, not least his role at the food bank, but that he had also “damaged the community” with his drug enterprise.
He said that Bach’s magic-mushroom racket was symptomatic of the “Bohemian attitude that you had to life”.
He said all the evidence showed “there’s another picture of you emerging – it’s not the nice, jovial lad working in kitchens. There’s another side to you.”
However, Mr Morris noted that the drug dealing was “tailing off” at the time of Bach’s arrest.
He said that Bach’s guilty pleas, his many glowing character references and a “realistic prospect of rehabilitation” had “just” saved him from an immediate prison sentence.
Bach received a two-year suspended jail sentence with 300 hours of unpaid work. Mr Moris told him: “You leave this court a convicted criminal, with all the shame that brings on you – all thanks to cannabis and magic mushrooms.”