Recruiter convicted for selling drugs to friends to fund habit

A recruitment consultant, who admitted in court to supplying cocaine to friends to help fund his own drug habit, has been fired after going AWOL, according to his former boss.

As reported by the Bristol Post, Bristol Crown Court heard yesterday that Charles Godsell, who according to his LinkedIn profile was most recently a senior recruitment consultant at Opus Recruitment Solutions, was arrested after police received a tip-off and knocked on his door in North Street, Nailsea, South-West of Bristol.

The court heard Godsell was caught with "a very considerable quantity" of cocaine when officers arrived at his door. He pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine with intent to supply and possessing the prescription tranquiliser diazepam. Godsell was given a two-year suspended jail sentence.

Commenting on Godsell’s conviction, Opus CEO Darren Ryemill told Recruiter Godsell had only worked at the agency for around a week and had failed to disclose he was facing an impending court case when he was hired.

“After about a week, he just went AWOL. We never heard from him or knew where he was. After a couple of days of him being missing, without telling us where he was or reasons for being off, one of our guys read in the newspaper that he missed his court date at the end of March time.

“He missed a date for court and then at that point we read about the situation against him. At that point, he wasn’t there – we made the decision that we would no longer be continuing with his appointment due to the undisclosed nature of his situation and the fact he hadn’t told us why he was leaving work.

“He was with us for such a short period of time. None of this happened while he was with Opus. It is in no way connected to Opus… and we do have a ‘no tolerance’ policy of drugs within the business.”

As well as the suspended jail sentence, Judge David Evans said Godsell must attend rehabilitation and issued a three-month curfew under which he must stay at home from 7pm to 7am on Fridays and Saturdays, and ordered him to pay £250 court costs in two months.

The paper adds Godsell’s guilty plea was on the basis he would consume a significant quantity of the drug, leaving a proportion available to sell.

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