Former Paralympics loses honour over Barrow drug supply conviction

Anthony Griffin was jailed last year alongside two others who were caught by police trying to supply class A drugs in the town.

The former world record holder has now been stripped of a British Empire Medal awarded to him in 2019 for his services to sport and charity, it has emerged.

Preston Crown Court heard Griffin, of Duncombe Road in Bolton, acted as the driver in the operation. 

The former sports star won 38 medals during his career in the 1970s and 1980s, competing in various events including powerlifting. 

The decision to remove an honour was made by the Cabinet Office's Forfeiture Committee.

The committee can make the decision if the holder is deemed to have brought the honours system into disrepute.

Griffin joins the former Post Office boss Paula Vennells in recently having an honour withdrawn. She was deemed to have brought the honour system into disrepute after coming under fire for her role in the Horizon IT scandal.

Griffin admitted conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine and possession with intent to supply the class A drugs.

He was stopped in a BMW in south Cumbria alongside co-defendants Tracie Barnes and Sean Burton.

The court heard how, on the afternoon of July 25 202, a police officer spotted Burton acting suspiciously and getting into the BMW in Raglan Court in Barrow.

The car was subsequently stopped on the A590 near Witherslack, around ten miles from junction 36 of the M6.

The three defendants were in the car with Griffin in the driver’s seat.

A phone recovered from Barnes showed messages between the three occupants of the car arranging the trip to Barrow, for which Griffin would be paid £100 as driver.

A phone recovered from Griffin showed he had travelled multiple times to Wolverhampton to collect Burton from Wolverhampton and take him to Liverpool, for which he was paid £250 per trip.

It also showed he was purchasing crack cocaine for Barnes and allowing Burton to stay over at his home address.