BY ERIC KING
A 20 year old Leeds drug dealer was given four years after being caught of 55 grammes of heroin worth £3,000 and 117 grammes of crack cocaine with an estimated street value of over £8,000. In addition, police seized a machete found in the passenger seat
Officers had to smash the driver’s window before arresting Gavin, who committed the offences while out of prison on licence after being sentenced to 18 months for similar offences when he appeared at Leeds Crown Court in June 2014.
Offering the typically foolish defence provided by many dealers after being caught,Gavin told police he committed the latest offences to pay off a debt to drug dealers to compensate for £1,000 worth of drugs seized when he was arrested before being jailed in June 2014.The court heard that he or his family would be subjected to serious violence unless he paid off the debt.
The funny thing is that although Gavin may truly have been motivated to drug deal to compensate for drugs previously seized by cops, he was a dealer at the time the drugs was seized and was a dealer when caught this time round. The presented reason is no excuse for his offence, rathe highlights some of the risks and consequences of drug dealing in the first instance. His lawyer told the court that Gavin did not own the machete seen in the passengers side, and had not attempted to use it to harm anybody.
Errh, maybe not yet, but the machete was there to be used if deemed necessary. It was amusing listening to his lawyer present this feeble excuse on behalf of his potentially very dangerous client who was probably prepared to chop someone’s head off if he was angry enough.
Heroine addiction is one of the evils of our society destroying individuals and hurting families Many addicts steal from shops and homes, and constitute a nuisance to civil members of society. Many so called homeless individuals who sit in the streets begging are heroine addicts with homes, begging for money to support their destructive habits. Drug dealers facilitate this habit by supplying them with the very thing destroying them.
Dealing drugs is fast money for those who build a large clientele of punters. The one big problem with drug dealing is the inevitable and unpredictable rivalry that occur over greed, thereby attracting their common enemy- the police- to put them behind bars.Dealers who escape the tension and turf wars that accompany the drug game are fortunate if they can amass enough money to start a business without police or gang hassle. The hard truth is that most successful dealers want more and more, and continue until some major problem happens to them or their employees, or ‘workers’, as they call them.
Worse of all, even for those who may escape every possible problem, they are contributing to making society a worse place now, and for the future generations. Younger kids with weak backgrounds often look up to the tough drug dealer driving the best cars, and want to be like them. They see them with pretty girls and envy them instead of pitying them.
Hopefully, this 20 year old caught with 55 gramme son heroine worth £3,000, and 117 grammes of Cocaine worth £8,000, will learn that there are more respectable ways of earning good money than drug dealing. A solid educational process in jail to enlighten their minds would be useful.
Mitigating, Marcus Waite said: “The defendant’s account was he borrowed the car. He didn’t own the machete, but he knew it was there. Clearly, it’s potentially a very dangerous weapon. The police smashed the window. At no point has he reached for the machete or tried to do anything with it. Whilst it was there, he didn’t seek to use it.
“The defendant says he was under pressure, but he doesn’t raise it as a defence. He blames himself for what he has done and indicates an intention to move away and make a clean start in the future.”
Judge Penelope Belcher told Gavin: “You have written me a letter and you say you are ashamed of what you did and ashamed of the impact on your family.
“You said you felt under pressure, you were struggling. You had a baby and you met these individuals and felt you had no alternative.
