Young drug dealer earns first taste of jail, thanks to repeat offences

22-YEAR-OLD HAS RACKED UP ‘CONSIDERABLE’ CRIMINAL RECORD

A YOUNG Derby drug dealer has failed in an attempt to avoid his first taste of adult prison because he keeps offending.

A judge told Alvaston’s Armani Lowers that the courts had given him a number of chances on previous occasions with orders and suspended sentences.

Derby Crown Court heard how, in May, police went to his address because they believed he had been involved in an unrelated incident.

But when they searched it they found crack cocaine and messages on his phone showing he had been selling it.

Jailing him for 18 months, Judge Nirmal Shant QC said: “History shows that when the court has given you the opportunity (to avoid prison) you have breached it. You are only 22 years of age and you have already amassed a considerable (criminal) record.

“On this occasion, over a few days, you were involved in the supply of a small amount of class A drugs.”

Lisa Hardy, prosecuting, said Lowers, of Tayberry Close, first found himself before the courts as a young teenager in 2014 for using threatening words or behaviour.

“He was then dealt with for an affray which involved a large number of young people in the city in 2016.

Mrs Hardy said between then and now the defendant had amassed 11 convictions for 20 offences including conspiracy to possess a firearm, criminal damage and assault.

In September of last year he was jailed for 16 weeks, suspended for a year for two counts of criminal damage and for using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour against police officers.

Mrs Hardy said: “On May 22 of this year there was an incident whereby he had been identified as being someone involved in a public order offence. As a consequence police went to his address in order to arrest him.

“A search led them to some paper wraps and, in essence, they were five wraps of crack cocaine.

“A phone was seized and analysed and on it there were messages between the defendant and one other person arranging to collect drugs from him. He admitted to the police he used cocaine mainly at the weekends.”

Lowers pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of class A drugs. He has one other relevant conviction for possession of class B drugs from December 2019.

Siward James-Moore, mitigating, said his client plans to move away from Derby and to Wolverhampton where the defendant’s father lives.

He said: “As far as this offence is concerned, it was over a short period of time and there were a small amount of drugs involved. It was an isolated incident. Drugs are not something he habitually mixes with.

“It is clear he has been drawn into a lifestyle he now seeks to divorce himself away from and there are opportunities for him to build on new beginnings.”