Kit PetersLOUGHOR: Drug dealer who fled to France jailed after ‘brutal’ ordeal in foreign prison
A Swansea drug dealer who skipped bail and fled to France was so badly attacked and abused in a French prison that he had to be placed in solitary confinement for his own safety, a court has heard.
Keith Storer, 51, of Castle Street, Loughor, has been jailed for three years, more than five years after he absconded and left the UK.
The sentencing at Swansea Crown Court brought to a close a case that began when police searched his home in the Waunarlwydd area of Swansea in June 2020.
The court heard that a search of the property and his car turned up several hundred empty snap-seal bags, weighing scales, notebooks recording money owed, £465 in cash and 1.2g of cocaine.
Prosecutor Regan Walters said an examination of Storer’s phone revealed messages relating to the supply of cocaine and cannabis over the previous six months.
The prosecutor said the messages also showed that Storer had used his teenage daughter as a “runner” to make deliveries for him.
In his police interview, Storer claimed the drugs were for his own use and that the snap-seal bags had been left by previous occupants of the property.
He was charged but failed to attend Swansea Magistrates’ Court in November 2020, and an arrest warrant was issued the following month.
That warrant was never executed, and it later emerged that Storer had absconded and left the country. The charges were withdrawn in October 2025.
The court heard that in 2026, South Wales Police received information that Storer had returned to the UK. The drugs charges were reinstated and he was arrested and brought before magistrates in March.
The prosecutor said checks showed Storer had continued to offend while in France. In 2022 he was given a suspended sentence for drink-driving, failing to stop and possession of drugs, and in 2024 he was sentenced to three years in prison there for being concerned in the supply of controlled drugs.
Storer had pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of cocaine and being concerned in the supply of cannabis. He has six previous convictions for 13 offences, including the matters in France.
Defence barrister Jon Tarrant said that while his client’s dealing in Swansea could be characterised as “relatively straightforward”, the offending was aggravated by the further offence he committed in France.
The barrister said Storer spent two years in prison in France, initially in a specialist facility for foreign-national drug offenders where he was the only UK national.
There, the court heard, he was subjected to “considerable violence” and other abuse, which culminated in an incident that led to him being moved to solitary confinement while arrangements were made to transfer him to a different jail.
Mr Tarrant said that while it was accepted his client was the “author of his own misfortune”, what happened in the first French prison had a “stark and long-lasting punitive effect” on him, both physically and psychologically.
Recorder Greg Bull KC said he accepted that Storer had experienced a difficult time in the French prison and had “suffered greatly”, but said he had brought that suffering upon himself. He said he could see no prospect of rehabilitation.
With a one-quarter discount for his guilty pleas, Storer was sentenced to three years. He will serve up to half in custody before being released on licence.
Detective Inspector Richard George, of South Wales Police, said the investigation had found Storer was heavily involved in the supply of Class A drugs and had done his utmost to evade justice.
He said the case had “blown up in his face”, adding that Class A dealers would always end up in prison.
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