Gala event will be streamed live
Plumber spared jail after court told he sold to ‘friends and their friends’
The News is proud to be hosting the 2021 Business Excellence Awards.
These long-running awards recognise a cross section of businesses and the vital role they play in the success of the region.
The awards ceremony will take place on July
8 at the Portsmouth
Guildhall and will be attended by more than 300 guests, as well as being live streamed.
For more information go to portsmouthbusiness excellence.co.uk or e-mail Richard Thompson, group events director, on richard.thompson@ jpimedia.co.uk or call 07385 348816.
A DRUG dealer who started selling LSD, ecstasy and cocaine to fund his heavy cannabis habit has been spared prison.
Plumber Shay Yetman was branded ‘incredibly foolish’ by a judge who warned him ‘courts treat drug dealing very seriously because people die’ from ecstasy.
Portsmouth Crown Court heard Yetman, 20, of Winkton Close, Bedhampton, was smoking half an ounce of cannabis a day when he started selling class A drugs.
Gabrielle Henty, prosecuting, said police went to his home about another matter on January 8 last year.
He wasn’t in but officers found a ‘large quantity of cannabis’ on his bed and some smaller bags on his bedside, together with three phones, £275 in cash and scales
An A4 paper pad was also found and was consistent with being an LSD and MDMA deals list, the court heard.
Ms Henty said messages on a burner phone showed messages 'consistent with the supply of class A drugs for profit including people he didn’t know’.
Yetman pleaded guilty to the charges on the basis he was ‘dealing to friends and friends of friends’ and denied being concerned in the supply of cannabis. This was accepted by prosecutors.
One message on the phone said: ‘Yo, any chance of a meet at 3pm for six tabs for £40?’
Recorder David Chidgey said: ‘Some people have a mistaken impression that if you just deal drugs to friends and if it’s not heroin it’s sort of okay. Well it’s not sort of okay.
‘The reason ecstasy was made a class A drug some years ago was because people die from taking ecstasy, and the courts treat drug dealing very seriously because people die.’
Dad-to-be Yetman has no previous and has since stopped taking drugs.
Addressing the dealer, the judge added: ‘Don’t use drugs again.’
The judge said Yetman would face ‘exceptional hardship’ if he was jailed and imposed a 12-month term suspended for a year with 200 hours’ unpaid work.
‘Mr Yetman you may leave the dock, please don’t come back,’ he added.
Laura Hollingbery, mitigating, said her client was due to become a parent in four months.
She said: ‘Mr Yetman had developed a cannabis habit that had gone out of control. He was smoking a considerable amount every day, up to half an ounce, and as this habit escalated he began dealing to friends and friends of friends.
‘This was over a very short period - two months.
‘Mr Yetman assures me that the dealing was irregular and it was only on occasions when he couldn’t afford the cannabis.’
Yetman admitted three charges of being concerned in the supply of class A drugs.
APPRENTICESHIPS — combine practical training in a job with study.
As an apprentice you’ll be an employee earning a wage and getting holiday pay. Work alongside experienced staff and gain job-specific skills.
TRAINEESHIPS – a course with work experience that gets you ready for work or an apprenticeship.
It can last from six weeks up to one year, though most traineeships last for less than six months.
You can apply if you’re eligible to work in England, unemployed and have little or no work experience.
T LEVEL PAID PLACEMENTS – new courses which follow GCSEs and are equivalent to three A levels.
These two-year courses, which launched in September 2020, have been developed in collaboration with employers and businesses so that the content meets the needs of industry and prepares students for work, further training or study.
T Levels offer students a mixture of classroom learning and ‘on-the-job’ experience during an industry placement of at least 315 hours (approximately 45 days).
INTERNSHIPS – a temporary position with an emphasis on on-thejob training rather than merely employment. Can be paid or unpaid.
WORK EXPERIENCE (>70 hours) – enables young, unemployed people to volunteer for placements lasting between two and eight weeks.
KICKSTARTERS – The government’s Kickstart Scheme provides funding to create new job placements for
16 to 24-year-olds on Universal Credit who are at risk of long-term unemployment.