A heroin dealer whose son raped young girls under her roof is now in prison too after she used her mother’s bank card to fund her drug habit.
Anthea Dickson, 47, has two children serving lengthy prison sentences – son Lewes Harby and daughter Savanna Harby, who was jailed this month for forging bullets used to shoot an antique gun in Kemp Town.
She’s now joining them after taking her mother Ida Green’s bank card from her retirement home in Kemp Town in May this year and spending £370 on it. She denied theft and fraud, but was found guilty after a trial at Brighton Magistrates Court.
Just a few days before, she had been caught stealing £232.59 worth of spirits from Asda in Hollingbury, which she admitted.
Both offences were committed while Dickson, who was living above a cafe in George Street, Hove, was subject to a suspended two year prison sentence for dealing heroin and crack cocaine in Brighton in March 2019 by St Mary’s Church in Kemp Town.
On Tuesday at Lewes Crown Court, the Recorder of Brighton and Hove, Her Honour Judge Christine Laing QC activated that sentence – and added another four months to it for the new offences.
She told Dickson: “You were dealing class A drugs. That’s an extremely serious offence which the sentencing guidelines say warrant an immediate prison sentence.
“I gave you a chance and you just didn’t take it.
“You have already been in breach once for not complying with the order. You then committed further offences during the course of that order.
“Because you didn’t tell me about that on the last occasion, you have had several more weeks to really engage with the order
“I have got absolutely no confidence that by giving you further chances you will engage.
“Probation believes the only real prospect of you tackling your addiction is within the confines of custody and I’m afraid I agree.”
Defending, Sarah Thorne said Dickson appreciated that her behaviour in stealing her mother’s bank card was “despicable” and that she had since paid her back at least £200.
She said: “She’s in the grip of crack cocaine addiction and trying to get as much money as she can and stealing goods from Asda.”
But she said that in recent weeks, she had been making an improvement, and working well with her probation officer.
She said: “She really seems to be someone who takes two steps forward, but she’s only taken one step back.”
Dickson’s daughter Savanna Harby, 19, was sentenced to five years in prison earlier this month for making live bullets for an antique pistol used in a Kemp Town shooting.
And her son Lewes Harby, now 24, was jailed for 18 years in 2017 for raping six young girls, one just 12 years old, at Dickson’s house.
During her trial, Savanna Harby tearfully recounted how her mother had taken drugs in front of her, and taken her to her dealers’ houses, exposing her to a childhood of abuse and neglect.
So how long has this evil looking pos actually been jailed for? And how did she pay her mother back, stealing, drug dealing?
What a delightful family!
“She takes two steps forward but she’s only taken one step back”. Really? It looks more like ten steps back.