Drug kingpin Alan Tobin struck off as mental health nurse

Alan Tobin, along with brother John, headed an organised crime group which ordered a £20million shipment of the class A drug be trafficked across the country.

Their racket was taken down by Cheshire Police’s Operation Kings after a series of raids in Warrington, St Helens and Widnes in September 2020.

This followed an 18-month investigation into an organised crime group responsible for supplying class A and class B drugs throughout England and Scotland.

The brothers were also involved in a shooting plot which left an innocent man with life-changing injuries after being blasted on his own doorstep.

Alan Tobin, of Regency Park in Widnes, was convicted of conspiracy to supply heroin, cocaine, ketamine and cannabis and was jailed for 20 years on April 20 last year.

He was locked up for an additional eight years in September after admitting two counts of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm in relation to a shooting on Poplars Avenue in Orford.

The victim was shot in the leg on the doorstep of his home on April 24, 2020, by gunman Aaron Bretherton posing as a pizza delivery driver.

Tobin was the subject of a Nursing and Midwifery Council fitness to practise committee hearing last week, which was ordered following his drugs conviction.

He was previously hit with an interim suspension order, but this has now been replaced with a striking-off order, with Tobin’s fitness to practise deemed to be permanently impaired.

Clockwise from top left: Aaron Bretherton, Liverpool Crown Court, Anthony Morris, John Tobin, the crime scene on Poplars Avenue and Alan Tobin

Tobin was involved in acute mental health nursing since 1987, and he was employed as a registered nurse by Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust.

In a case management form completed in May this year, Tobin admitted that his fitness to practise is currently impaired by reason of his conviction.

The fitness to practise panel found that patients and the public at large were put at risk of ‘physical and emotional harm’ as a result of the conduct which led to Tobin’s conviction.

It considered that Tobin’s conduct had breached the ‘fundamental tenets of the nursing profession’, and therefore brought its reputation ‘into disrepute’.

Members did however stress that there was no evidence that Tobin’s conviction or participation in organised criminal activity resulted in any clinical failings on his part.

The panel stated that there is a risk of repetition based on the seriousness of the illegal activity in which he was involved, which spanned more than four years between 2016 and 2020.

It therefore decided that a finding of impairment was necessary on the grounds of public protection, with no prospect of retraining.

A hearing report reads: “Tobin’s actions were significant departures from the standards expected of a registered nurse, and are fundamentally incompatible with him remaining on the register.

“The panel was of the view that the findings in this particular case demonstrate that Tobin’s actions were serious, and to allow him to continue practising would undermine public confidence in the profession.

“Balancing all of these factors, and after taking into account all the evidence before it during this case, the panel determined that the appropriate and proportionate sanction is that of a striking-off order.

Clockwise from top left: Alan Tobin, John Tobin, Brian McQuillan, Robbie Broughton and Simon Leech were jailed for drugs matters

“The panel considered that this order was necessary to mark the importance of maintaining public confidence in the profession, and to send to the public and the profession a clear message about the standard of behaviour required of a registered nurse.”

Tobin’s mental health career was used in mitigation in the Poplars Avenue shooting case, with his barrister describing him as someone who ‘does not fit the mould’ of most serious criminals who offer no contribution to society.

The court heard how the man shot was not the intended target, and how the shot shattered his tibia and fibula, requiring several operations, metal pins and a steel cage to rebuild his leg.

Tobin sent messages discussing causing significant harm to associates of an organised crime group to a ringleader who organised the shooting.

His drugs conviction came for his role in a ring which supplied huge amounts of cocaine to Anthony and Leon Cullen, and another gang operated by Jamie Oldroyd.

The Tobins also instructed fellow crime boss Jamie Simpson to deliver 186kg of cocaine – worth an estimated £20million – from Kent to Warrington on their behalf.

But Cheshire Police’s serious and organised crime unit seized these drugs during a dramatic sting on the M6 near Knutsford in August 2018 – one of the biggest drug seizures by police in UK history.

At its height, the gang was a ‘smooth, successfully profitable criminal organisation’, but this changed when a series of operations took down the OCGs.

'Well respected' mental health nurse Alan began dealing drugs on a small scale level in order to 'supplement his income', but became increasingly sucked deeper into the criminal underworld.