A Sandbanks businessman has been jailed for his leading role in a plot to supply millions of pounds' worth of cocaine.

Patrick Dyett, 31, of Haven Road, was owner of the Sandbanks Horse Racing Club, drove a Bentley and purported to be a professional sports gambler.

But in fact he was playing a major role in a conspiracy which has seen nine men sentenced at Luton Crown Court to a total of 88 years and seven months in prison.

Dyett was jailed for eight years and six months after admitting conspiracy to supply cocaine, a class A drug, at an earlier hearing.

The conspirators were as brought to justice after a year-long operation by the Eastern Region Operations Unit across the south and east of England, which resulted in cocaine with a street value of more than £5m being seized.

Dyett was regarded as playing a leading role in a conspiracy to supply cocaine across the region.

Detective Inspector Gary Atkinson, from the Eastern Region Specialist Operations Unit, who led the investigation, said: “Cocaine destroys lives and those sentenced operated purely for their own greed and monetary gain with no regard for the law, nor for the lives of those who are vulnerable through their addictions.

“The calculated and planned criminal activities which fuelled their enterprise were, in their eyes, merely business transactions, which - had we not intercepted them - would have played a significant contributory factor in destroying more lives.”

Confiscation proceedings have begun against all the defendants in a bid to seize £500,000 in available assets.

The others who had admitted conspiracy to supply class A drugs were Robert Webb, 55, of Cliffs End Promenade, Broadstairs, Kent, who was sentenced to 13 Years in prison; Jonathan Mason, 45, off Cliffs End Road, Ramsgate, Kent, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison; Gareth Harnett, 32, of Oaklands Avenue, Broadstairs, who was jailed for five years and four months; Sean Martin, 32, of Riverfield Drive, Bedford, jailed for six years; and Andrew Dawson, 45, of Kiln Lane, Clophill, Bedfordshire, jailed for five years and four months.

Those convicted of the same charges following a trial at Luton Crown Court were Daren Coomber, 41, of Hoaden, Ash, Kent, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison; Paul Nolan, 36, of St Radigunds Road, Dover, hailed for 11 years; and Eamon Ward, 28, of Crossmaglen in Newry, County Down, Ireland, who was sentenced to 10 years five months in prison.