‘Panicking’ drug dealer rammed car into police vehicle
A “PANICKING” drug dealer rammed a police vehicle causing his car to flip over onto its roof, a court has heard.
Lathan Rees swerved around cars and drove along a pavement before slamming into the unmarked cop car as he tried to flee. The two officers in the police car both suffered whiplash injuries in the crash but were able to help pursue the defendant on foot. The young son of one of the injured officers is now worried every time his mother goes to work.
Swansea Crown Court heard Rees came to the attention of police because officers were searching for a man by the name of Dylan Forbes in connection with an assault in Neath.
Tom Scapens, prosecuting, said on October 8 this year an intelligence lead on the whereabouts of Forbes led officers to Clos John Charles in the Cwmbwrla area of Swansea. As plain clothes officers watched the street, their target Forbes emerged from one of the flats carrying a child, and in the company of two women.
The officers moved in and arrested the 26 year old, and when searched he was found to be in possession of a flat key. When officers searched the flat they found letters addressed to the defendant along with a rock of crack cocaine, and weighing scales covered in traces of a white powder. The court heard officers seized Forbes’ iphone but he refused to reveal its passcode and police have not been able to access it.
Mr Scapens said the police left Clos John Charles and drove onto Middle Road, and there they encountered a Ford Fiesta which was linked to the address they had just searched.
The officers signalled for the Ford to stop but it drove off “erratically”, mounting a pavement before swerving across the road and mounting the opposite pavement. The car then crashed into the front-offside corner of an unmarked police car and flipped onto its roof.
The driver – now known to be 25-yearold Rees – climbed out of a window and ran off. Officers, including officers from the car which he had just rammed, gave chase and caught him a short distance away. When he was searched he was found to be in possession of seven deals of crack cocaine and £480 in cash. The court heard that his Nokia phone was checked, and it was found to contain 78 incoming messages requesting drugs which had been received that day.
Mr Scapens said it was the prosecution case that Forbes and Rees were operating together in the supply of cocaine.
In impact statements read to the court from the officers in the car which Rees rammed, they said they had suffered whiplash-type injuries as well as pain in their limbs, and one of them was receiving physio. Both officers said they were now anxious about being in cars, and the female officer said the incident had left her young son worried about her going to work.
Lathan James Evans Rees, of Clos John Charles, Cwmbwrla, Swansea, had previously pleaded guilty to possession of crack cocaine with intent to supply, dangerous driving, and driving while disqualified when he appeared in the dock for sentencing.
Dylan Ashley Forbes, of St Clears Place, Penlan, Swansea, had previously pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of crack cocaine and to an unrelated assault occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH) when he appeared alongside his codefendant. The ABH relates to an attack on a prison officer at HMP Parc in March this year. The court heard that after officers broke up a fight involving a number of inmates Forbes was led back to his cell – on the way he demanded his vape, which he had lost in the brawl, and when his request was refused he butted an officer in the face and broke his nose.
Rees has two previous convictions for drug-driving. Forbes has six previous convictions for 23 offences including ABH and inflicting grievous bodily harm when he was a youth – these offences had seen him attacking strangers outside Pontardawe’s Paradise nightclub – driving with excess alcohol, blackmail, assaults by beating, criminal damage, harassment, production of cannabis, and threatening to disclose a private sexual photograph or film.
Hywel Davies, for Rees, said his client had panicked when the police signalled for him to stop, and he had made the wrong decision. He said the defendant had run-up a drug debt after his addiction “spiralled out of control”, and had started dealing but without any real idea of what he was getting into.
Huw Davies, for Forbes, conceded his client had an “unenviable record” for violence. He said the defendant had worked as a labourer on building sites since leaving school but with work proving hard to come by during the Covid pandemic he began mixing with the “wrong people” and turned to drug supply to fund his own use.
With one-third discounts for their guilty pleas judge Christopher Vosper QC sentenced each man to a total of 40 months in prison – 28 months each for their drugs offences, and then 12 months for Rees for the dangerous driving and 12 months for Forbes for the ABH to run consecutively with the drugs matters.
Each man will serve up to half the 40 months in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community. Rees was also disqualified from driving for two years, the ban extended by 20 months to cover the period he will be behind bars.
The court heard Forbes was dealt with internally in Parc for his part in the assault on the fellow inmate with seven-days’ cell confinement and 21-days’ loss of privileges.