Glasgow Royal Hospital for Children's nurse caught in £200,000 drugs and dirty money raid jailed

A children’s nurse caught in a £200,000 drugs and dirty money raid has been jailed for four years.

Kiran Farooq had been held by police in Glasgow’s Finnieston on December 30, 2023.

Police went on to seize hauls of cocaine, ecstasy and cash from a nearby upmarket flat that she had the keys for.

The 34 year-old was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow on Tuesday.

She had earlier admitted to being concerned in the supply of both class A drugs.

Lord Mulholland cut the jail-term from six years due to the guilty plea.

The court was told how Farooq – who had been a nurse at the city’s Royal Hospital for Children – was spotted by police briefly going into a car, leaving then entering her own vehicle.

Prosecutor Mark Mohammed KC said: “They suspected they had observed a drugs transaction.”

She was followed to a secure car park at the flats in the city’s Lancefield Quay.

Farooq was stopped and got out of her vehicle. She then dropped the keys for a property there.

Officers initially seized almost £12,000 inside a small carrier bag in the car.

Police, at first, looked through the letterbox of the flat and spotted an open bag which appeared to contain drugs.

Mr Mohammed said: “Cocaine and MDMA (ecstasy) were recovered along with a quantity of cash and drug dealing paraphernalia.”

This included a consignment of cocaine that had a purity of up to 77%.

Police found thousands of ecstasy pills as well as the drug in crystal form.

There was also a haul of a substance used to bulk out narcotics to maximise profits for dealers along with a number of sets of scales and part of a kitchen blender.

A further £26,000 of cash in mixed notes was seized.

Farooq, of the city’s Yorkhill, had also been accused of being involved in the supply of other drugs including ketamine, cannabis and bromazolam.

Prosecutors accepted her not guilty pleas to those charges.

The court heard how Farooq had been “open and frank” about what she had done and how she got involved.

She also had her own issues with substance misuse.

Farooq’s lawyer Laura Anne Radcliffe said the nurse had previously worked on a neo-natal unit.

Lord Mulholland then stated: “Mothers would have been horrified at someone using drugs working in a unit with young babies.”

The hearing was told Farooq has yet to be struck off, but will happen in due course.

Jailing her, the judge said: “This was no small-time operation. From your account in the (pre-sentencing) social work report, you knew what you were doing and had been involved in drug trafficking for some time.

“You shamed yourself, your family and the nursing profession.

“Drug trafficking is not something a professional nurse dedicated to helping others should be doing