A drug dealer "spat out" a pack of wraps of crack cocaine and heroin after being arrested by a police officer who spotted him rummaging in bushes.
Daniel White was apprehended after a patrol caught sight of him “clambering in undergrowth” near a railway line running behind the Beechwood estate and close to his home address on November 23. Peter Hussey, prosecuting at Chester Crown Court on Tuesday, said that as White was detained he "spat out" a package of drugs, which were found to be 16 wraps of crack cocaine and six of heroin.
White, 33, also had £234 in cash and an Alcatel phone with him, in addition to a “tick list” at home. The officer searched the “undergrowth” below the footbridge and found another 13 wraps of heroin.
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In police interview, White “admitted he was intending to supply drugs”. He said someone had asked him to start dealing a couple of days earlier and he had dropped off and delivered two lots of drugs worth around £800 each in one day.
White was charged with two counts of possession with intent to supply Class As over the wraps he was found with at the footbridge and two counts of being concerned in their supply over the other admissions.
Mr Hussey said that “to his credit”, White entered prompt guilty pleas to all four charges within days of his arrest. A police drug expert said the wraps looked like £10 deals. White, Croasdale Drive, Runcorn, had seven convictions for 14 offences, all over the last five or six years, and these included shoplifting, failing to surrender, and possessing drugs but none for supply.
Mr Hussey described White’s dealing as “lesser role” with a “limited understanding of the scale of the operation and he was performing a limited function”. White had also spent 19 qualifying days on curfew to deduct from any sentence.
Philip Tully, defending, pleaded mitigation for White’s prompt guilty pleas and letters on his behalf from his father and a support programme worker, the latter in relation to a hostel where White had spent time and which referred to White’s “mental health and ongoing problems with drug addiction”.
He added White was now taking “blocking” medicine to suppress the desire for drugs instead of the opiate substitute methadone and was “determined” and had “taken great steps to rid himself of his addiction”.
Mr Tully added White was also living at home with his father and had a “supportive family” who were in court. Before the defence mitigation finished, Recorder Philip Barnes said he wasn't “in the business of prolonging agony” and said he had "constructive intervention" in mind for White.
He said: “It strikes me that everything I’ve seen about Mr White calls for constructive intervention, and he should know that now. Everything I’ve read about Daniel White tells me, although these offences are serious, there’s proper work to be done.”
He asked Mr Tully to “focus on what that something would look like”.
Mr Tully said a “very detailed” probation report recommended restrictions on White’s liberty, which would form part of a suspended sentence, balancing punishment and rehabilitation.
Recorder Barnes sentenced White to 15 months in prison, suspended for 18 months, with an 8pm to 7am curfew for three months, 15 days on a rehabilitation activity requirement and a drug rehabilitation requirement for six months.
The route to 15 months began with a provisional sentence set at two years, with eight months deducted for the guilty pleas, then a further month taken off to reflect time on curfew, leaving 15 months, which was within the suspended sentence limit of two years.
Recorder Barnes urged White to “take as many steps as you possibly can to rid yourself of drugs forever” and wished him “good luck” in complying with the suspended sentence order.
During his sentencing remarks, he said: “The pre-sentence report and the very well-put letter from your father tell the court all the court needs to know. Your life has been blighted by Class A drugs and because of the ways you suffered as a young man and the way you sought to deal with the problems that have haunted you.”
The court also ordered a victim surcharge, plus forfeiture and destruction of the drugs and phone, in addition to confiscation of the cash for policing in Cheshire.
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