A homeless woman, who netted over £34,000 by selling heroin and cocaine from a shop doorway in York city centre, has been given a three-year suspended jail sentence.
Dominique Ellerby, 36, was running her illicit enterprise like a bona fide business, even keeping a spreadsheet to tally her drug sales and keep a daily account of cash flow and “stock”. This happened while she was sleeping rough outside WH Smith in Coney Street, York’s main shopping thoroughfare.
Prosecutor Victoria Ball said that Ellerby was one of “many people” running a “drug line” in the city.
“She was making lists of sales and money received,” added Ms Ball.
Ellerby used the drug line’s phone to send up to 3,497 bulk messages to potential customers “advertising Class A drugs for sale” between November 2025 and March this year.
In one message, she wrote: “I’m going to be coming into town every morning before 12 o’clock you guys, so get your orders in!”
In another, she wrote: “I’m in Coney Street – on all night!”
On March 23, police officers found Ellerby asleep in the doorway of WH Smith, now known as TG Jones. She was arrested and her belongings were searched.
In her hold-all, police found two notebooks and three mobile phones including the handset used for the drug line.
Inside the notepads were jottings including the account number and sort code for her Halifax bank account. Other handwritten entries included a list of names of drug customers and their phone numbers.
There were also “handwritten lists and documents which appear to be a spreadsheet of (drug) products and cash flow”, said Ms Ball.
“The defendant was recording her sales and stock daily,” she added.
A police drug expert said that given the number of drug users who received the “broadcast” messages, Ellerby could have made up to £34,970 from drug sales.
However, Ellerby effectively made next to nothing because the profits went “to those in control of the drug line” and no money was found in her Halifax bank account.
Her solicitor Graham Parkin said: “She was effectively offered the proposition that she could sell (drugs) and her payment for selling would be a supply of her own drugs for her own needs. She’s given quantities of ready-made (drug) wraps (to sell). She had to keep a list of all the sales.”
He said that Ellerby, whom he described as “vulnerable” and prone to exploitation, had been using her benefits money and begged in the street to fund her “long-standing” drug addiction after becoming homeless.
He said that if she were spared prison she would be given accommodation at a friend’s house in York.
Ellerby, now of Tudor Road, Low Field, admitted supplying heroin and cocaine at a previous hearing and appeared for sentence today (23 June) after being remanded in custody.
Ms Ball said that Ellerby had 16 previous offences on her record including two house burglaries which occurred on a Christmas Eve and the theft of a vehicle which resulted in a three-year prison sentence in 2018.
Recorder Paul Reid said although it was clear that Ellerby had been “heavily involved in the supply of drugs”, it wasn’t certain “how many deals you generated” and there was “no suggestion you were making a large profit”.
He said that rather than any “significant financial advantage”, Ellerby was simply selling drugs to “fund your rather appalling habit”.
He noted how Ellerby was in an “utterly hopeless, wretched state, weighing six stone” when she was found “camped out in a doorway at WH Smith”.
Mr Reid acknowledged that Ellerby was “living in poverty” at the time and that new sentencing guidelines meant that even a three-year jail sentence could now be suspended.
Ellerby was given a three-year jail sentence, but this was suspended for two years.
As part of that order, she will have to complete a six-month drug-rehabilitation programme and undergo trail monitoring by way of an electronic tag which will enable police to keep a check on her whereabouts.
Ellerby was also ordered to complete 35 rehabilitation-activity days,
