DRUG DEALER BROUGHT DOWN BY POLICE
HEROIN, CASH AND A KNIFE WERE FOUND ON DEFENDANT
DRUG-dealing cyclist selling class A deals on the streets of Leicester proved impervious to a police stungun - but not to a good old-fashioned rugby tackle.
Shaun Sibanda was tracked down by the police after they received a report of someone carrying a knife in the Bede Park area.
The 22-year-old tried to give officers the slip and was Tasered, but it had no effect – although a more traditional hands-on approach was successful.
Lucky Thandi, prosecuting, told Leicester Crown Court that Sibanda fitted the description of an armed cyclist seen in Bede Park and was pursued into Briton Street, off Narborough Road, on Saturday, May 15 this year.
The defendant ignored an officer’s shouts to stop and instead increased his speed.
The officer managed to knock him off his bicycle, but Sibanda then got up and began to run.
Miss Thandi said: “The defendant was seen reaching for his waistband, resulting in one of the officers using a Taser, which didn’t have the desired effect and he continued on.”
The officer then grabbed hold of him in a “bear hug” from behind and successfully pulled him onto the ground, where he was detained and handcuffed.
Sibanda was in possession of 38 wraps of heroin, weighing 4.04 grams, along with a further 2.3 grams of heroin in another bag and 20 of crack-cocaine, weighing two grams.
The drugs had a street value of more than £1,000.
Miss Thandi said officers also seized £3,034 in cash from the defendant.
She told the court: “A knife was also recovered but the Crown is not pursuing that matter.”
Sibanda, of Blandford Road, QuinA ton, Birmingham, gave a “no comment” interview but pleaded guilty to possessing heroin and crackcocaine with intent to supply and possessing criminal property, namely the cash seized on his arrest.
The court heard that the defenddeals ant had previously been jailed for possessing cannabis with intent to supply.
In mitigation, the court heard Sibanda was in debt to his drug supplier as a result of his earlier conviction, when cannabis was seized and the supplier was adamant the defendant had to pay for it.
Sibanda joined an employment agency to legitimately fund the repayments.
But when he lost the work through no fault of his own, he still needed to carrying on paying and felt he had “no choice” but to sell drugs to settle the sum owed.
Sentencing, Recorder Patrick Upward QC said: “I take into account you are a user of drugs and that, having lost your job, you were pressured into selling these drugs to pay off a debt.”
But he said the offences were so serious that only immediate custody could follow.
Sibanda was jailed for two years and four months.