A teaching assistant found with almost £500 of cocaine claimed he was taking drugs to a friend's party but texts on his phone revealed he had been dealing. He was caught by police after he was seen throwing a package into a garden.
Tyrrell Webbe, 32, was spotted by police at 2am in Cardiff on March 20 last year and upon seeing the police vehicle, the defendant dropped something into a nearby garden. He was spoken to by police, who recovered a zip lock bag containing wraps of white powder.
An examination of the powder revealed it to be 12 wraps of cocaine weighing just under four grams, worth a street value of £480. A sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court on Tuesday also heard Webbe's Ford Fiesta, parked in Guenever Close, Thornhill, was also searched and a black iPhone was seized.
Read more: The sick words a killer told his taxi driver after fatally punching a stranger in the street
Texts on the phone were found to be consistent with drug dealing, with one message received on the day of the defendant's arrest reading: "Can we get three bags of cocaine? Can we get three for £100?". Webbe, of Stonehouse Cottages, Nantgarw, was arrested and gave a no comment interview, but he later pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply a controlled drug of class A.
The court heard he had three previous convictions of a dissimilar nature. The last conviction was in 2014 for a driving matter.
In mitigation, Nik Strobl said there had been a delay in the case due to the extraction of the defendant's phone which took place in October last year. He said: "(Webbe) was on his way to bring the drugs to his friend that night which he accepts was a stupid decision. He received a message from somebody asking for drugs and saw an opportunity to make some money on the side."
Mr Strobl said the defendant had been working as a teaching assistant but would not be able to carry on his employment due to his conviction. As a result he began working as a delivery driver and did fundraising for a cancer charity. He also has an 11-year-old daughter who he does not have contact with.
Recorder Richard Kember sentenced Webbe to 28 months imprisonment. It is the defendant's first sentence of imprisonment, of which he serve half in custody and the remainder on licence.
READ NEXT:
-
The brutal neo-Nazi machete attack that almost saw a man beheaded in a Welsh supermarket
-
Love rival stabbed by man after telling him he had slept with his girlfriend
-
Shirtless thug racially abused bouncers, threw chairs and attacked them with metal pole
-
Man covered in blood after being slashed with broken glass in fight
You can sign up to our regular Crime and Punishment newsletter here while this interactive tool allows you to check the latest crime statistics for your area:
