A world champion boxing trainer and manager has been jailed for 10 years after being found guilty of conspiracy to supply cocaine.
Andrew Bulcroft, 48, who is better known in the boxing community as Stefy Bull, was remanded in custody on February 28 after being accused of buying ‘significant amounts’ of cocaine under the pseudonym ‘Yummycub’ by using the Encrophat encrypted phone network.
Bulcroft denied the charges against him, but a jury delivered a unanimously guilty verdict after a four-day trial at Sheffield Crown Court in June.
Along with his co-defendant Benjamin Williams, Bulcroft received a 10-year sentence. Williams was, though, given a 15 per cent reduction on his sentence due to his guilty plea given before trial. Williams pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy to supply cocaine, possessing cocaine with intent to supply, possessing cannabis with intent to supply and possessing criminal property, and has been released on conditional bail ahead of his sentencing.
Bulcroft’s sentencing had been due to take place in May but was pushed back to later this summer due to the availability of his legal team.
Judge Hampton, meanwhile, said that said Bulcroft had since admitted his guilt and spoken of his ‘remorse’.
A world champion boxing trainer and manager (left) has been jailed for 10 years after being found guilty of conspiracy to supply cocaine.
Andrew Bulcroft, (right) was accused of buying ‘significant amounts’ of cocaine under the pseudonym ‘Yummycub’
He said: ‘The reality is you chanced your arm at trial, just as you chanced your arm at offending.’
He added that Bulcroft had ‘often played for high stakes’ in his boxing career and did the same with his involvement with drugs. It was said that Bulcroft ‘changed lives in a positive way’ with his boxing work but, other than ‘making constructive use’ of his time on remand, he had ‘utterly betrayed’ his previous good work’.
‘You seek to blame your offending upon your financial circumstances at the time of the coronavirus lockdown period,’ Judge Hampton said. ‘I’m afraid, in my judgement, that’s scant mitigation.
‘You and Mr Williams only have yourselves to blame.’
The court heard how Bulcroft and Williams had used the Encrochat encrypted phone network to buy the drugs. It was said they had purchased drugs from Christopher and Jonathan McAllister, who were jailed in 2022 for supplying Class A drugs, before supplying them to be sold.
Bulcroft is said to have used Encrochat to communicate with an unidentified person in Spain who had advised him on the process of buying cocaine priced up to £37,000.
Police found £84,000 in cash inside a safe in a fortified building when they arrested Williams at his house in June 2020, as well as £9,500 worth of cocaine and £105 worth of cannabis.
Both men, who appeared in court via video link from HMP Doncaster, were told they would serve up to 40 per cent of their sentences in jail.
Bulcroft has worked with multiple world champions, including Terri Harper (right), but is now in jail and will serve at least 40 per cent of his sentence there
Bulcroft denied the charges against him but a jury delivered a unanimously guilty verdict
Bulcroft is a former professional boxer who faced Amir Khan back in 2007 before turning his hand to training and management. Based in Doncaster, he has worked with a number of elite fighters, including three-weight female world champion Terri Harper.
He also previously guided the career of ex-world champion Jamie McDonnell, as well as Maxi Hughes and Jason Cunningham, who have won major titles as professionals.
Harper successfully defended her WBO lightweight belt in May, but Bulcroft was not in her corner.
Court documents revealed how prosecutor Sam Ponniah told the court how messages sent between March and May 2020 on Encrochat showed ‘Yummycub’ ‘enquiring about buying kilos of cocaine at around £38,000 a go’.
The police turned their attention to finding out who Yummycub was, and found that a message asking one of the McAllisters to meet at ‘my gym’ shared the same postcode as Bulcroft’s former boxing gym in Denaby Main. Another message telling the McAllisters to meet at ‘my house’ also matched Bulcroft’s home address.
Bulcroft replied ‘thank you’ to a happy birthday message on May 10, 2020, with Ponniah claiming this made it ‘crystal clear’ he was Yummycub.
Bulcroft denied the allegation and claimed one of his fighters must have been Yummycub after revealing how they would sometimes stay at his house.
He did not name an alternative suspect, and there is no indication of any wrongdoing from any fighters associated with Bull.
