Supermarket cocaine dealer weeps in court as he is sent to prison
A COCAINE dealer caught in a supermarket car park broke down in tears in the dock as he was sent to prison.
Bleddyn Huw Morris, 30, was found with a stash of the Class A drug, weighing scales and £700 in cash when his vehicle was stopped outside a Sainsbury’s.
He was also smelling strongly of cannabis and tests showed he was more than four times over the legal driving limit for the drug. His advocate told the court he had turned to dealing cocaine after running up debts through his use of cannabis.
Swansea Crown Court heard that on the afternoon of March 16 last year police stopped the defendant’s car in the car park of Swansea’s Sainsbury’s supermarket.
The court has previously heard how the area around the Quay Parade store is a known “area of concern” in regards to the drug trade.
Sian Cutter, prosecuting, said Morris and his vehicle “smelled strongly” of cannabis and as a result both were searched. The searches uncovered a stash of cocaine, weighing scales containing traces of white powder, eight small empty plastic bags and £700 in cash. A subsequent search of the defendant’s house uncovered another £2,600 in his bedroom. Morris’ phone was seized and found to contain messages relating to the supply of drugs, including outgoing texts advertising “Colombian flake” – a reference to cocaine – for sale.
When arrested and questioned, he gave a “no comment” interview. The court heard a subsequent blood test showed he was more than four times over the driving limit for cannabis.
Morris, of Pleasant Street, Morriston, admitted possession of cocaine with intent to supply. He has five previous convictions for six offences, two for the simple possession of drugs and three for drug-driving. One of these drug-driving convictions is from January this year when he was still being investigated for the cocaine-dealing matter.
Stuart John, for Morris, said the defendant had started dealing Class A drugs after running up a debt due to his consumption of cannabis, but he had now stopped using that drug.
He said while it had to be accepted the defendant had given a “no comment” interview to officers, the police had been in possession of the evidence in the case on the day of his arrest in March last year yet there had been a “not insubstantial delay” in the case being charged and coming to court. The advocate said the man being sentenced in the dock was a very different person from the one caught dealing cocaine and, in his experience, it was fair to say he had never met a defendant who was more fearful of a term of imprisonment.
With a one-third discount for his guilty plea, recorder Christopher Clee QC sentenced Morris to three years in prison. He will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community. The defendant broke down in tears in the dock as the sentence was passed.
The court heard Morris has previously been dealt with at Swansea Magistrates’ Court for the drugdriving offence when he was disqualified from driving for three years and fined £500.