Addict, 54, sold heroin to feed her drug habit

JON MACPHERSON

ACONVICTED drug dealer was caught supplying heroin on the streets of Accrington after missing her methadone prescription, a court heard.

Janette Cunliffe, 54, had gone four days without heroin after missing a chemist appointment and ‘needed to obtain a fix’.

Prosecutor Stephen Parker told Burnley Crown Court how she approached a drug dealer but was short of money and agreed to sell drugs on his behalf in exchange for some heroin.

Officers from the Targeted Crime Team were on duty in Accrington on May 3 last year and saw Cunliffe ‘acting suspiciously’ on Albert Street.

The defendant was observed on her mobile phone and making several ‘exchanges’ with men before being approached by police at 1.30pm.

Mr Parker said Cunliffe reached into her jacket pocket and dropped the heroin on the floor before trying to walk off.

She was stopped and detained and officers recovered 25 wraps of heroin in £10 street deals and £69.40 in cash.

In a basis of plea, Cunliffe said she was a heroin addict and had missed her appointment at the chemist to get methadone.

The defendant said she had been without heroin for four days and ‘needed to obtain a fix’.

Cunliffe, of Belfield Road, Accrington, pleaded guilty to possessing heroin with intent to supply.

She was given an 18-month jail sentence, suspended for two years with a 12-month drug reha- for 59 previous offences and was previously jailed in 2003 for 42 months for supplying heroin and crack cocaine.

Defence barrister Darren Lee-Smith said it is a ‘downward spiral of drugs use that has destroyed her life’.

He said: “She was doing it because she was desperate for drugs herself. Someone took advantage of her to sell drugs. This has been a massive wake-up call for her and she has now become drug-free.”

Sentencing, Recorder Jon Bromley-Davenport QC said: “I accept the basis of plea in that you allowed yourself to get into this because the difficulties you had with your methadone and somebody used you to sell his drugs in return for him promising to give you some at the end of it.”