A drug dealer confessed “I’ve got gear on me” after being chased on foot by plain clothes police officers.
Nathan Dring, 28, of Tennyson Street, Bootle, appeared for sentence via videolink at Liverpool Crown Court on Friday following the pursuit, which took place on December 1 in Widnes. Jamie Baxter, prosecuting, told the court a plain clothes officer had spotted Dring on Ann Street West walking towards her and in the direction of Lugsdale Road when she caught the smell of cannabis as he passed.
The area was “known for drug-dealing” and she followed Dring onto Elizabeth Court and decided to stop and search him, with an unmarked police car arriving and pulling up by Dring. Mr Baxter said a “short foot chase” followed, ending when police caught up with Dring on Lacey Street.
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Asked why he ran off, he replied: “I’ve got gear on me.”
To the question of what type, he said Class As.
Officers arrested and searched him, retrieving various packs of wraps or crack cocaine and heroin from about his person including down his right trouser leg, totalling 101 wraps of crack cocaine and 89 wraps of heroin, plus a phone and £38 in cash.
Mr Baxter said Dring also had two “spliffs of weed”, which the suspect said were for his own use.
A police drug expert estimated the total “street value” of the heroin and crack at around £2,330.
Dring pleaded guilty before magistrates at the first opportunity to two counts of possession with intent to supply Class A drugs and one of simple possession of a Class B.
He had seven convictions for seven offences including possessing cannabis and one shoplifting conviction from last July, meaning he was facing a prison sentence for the first time.
Mr Baxter argued the heroin and crack supply matters constituted “significant role” due to the quantities of drugs which implied “significant” financial gain and a grasp of the scale of the operation, and fit a sentencing range of 42 months to seven years with a starting point of 54 months.
David Rose, defending, said Dring claimed he had been “placed under pressure” to supply drugs but didn’t want the “risk of a Newton hearing” - a type of hearing to establish whether a specific aspect of an allegation is true - to thrash out the truth of that claim.
He said Dring had been diagnosed with a serious psychological illness, for which he is “heavily medicated”, and is someone “vulnerable” to the actions of “predatory behaviour” of others in the drug supply chain.
Mr Rose added there were two references submitted for him, from his mother and the second from his partner with whom he has a young child, meaning he has “commitments and family duties” to encourage him to keep on the “straight and narrow” when he leaves prison.
District Judge Jack McGarva reduced Dring’s starting point sentence by a third and sentenced him to three years in prison.
There was no separate penalty for the cannabis, which Judge McGarva branded "the least of his problems".
Following a question from Dring via videolink, the judge assured him the two months he’s already spent on remand would be deducted from how long he serves.
During his summing-up Judge McGarva said: “As you should know these offences cause misery to people who become hooked on dangerous drugs.
“I do bear in mind that you’ve been under some pressure to supply drugs but in a sense you’ve chosen this lifestyle and you have to accept that.”
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