Addict relapsed after she was given £19k of universal credit
AN “ENTRENCHED” drug addict was found in possession of heroin and crack cocaine as well as stun guns disguised as a ring and a knuckle-duster, a court has heard.
The weapons had the ability to discharge a high voltage of electricity.
Karen Amos, 42, was arrested after police raided an address in Bridgend on November 26 last year.
Entry was forced into the property in Heol Loveluck and four people were found in the living room. The defendant was sitting alone on a sofa, with brown powder and a large lump of crack cocaine on the floor in front of her.
A sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court heard Amos was handcuffed and £205 was seized from her back pocket.
A handbag belonging to the defendant contained £45, a gas canister designed to discharge CS gas and a ring designed to discharge electricity.
The weapon would be worn on a middle finger, and would be activated when the user clenched their fist.
A Kinder Egg was also seized from under a wooden table and was found to contain a small amount of heroin and one MDMA tablet.
A further 11.9g of heroin and 4.3g of crack cocaine was seized from the floor.
Officers also recovered weighing scales containing residue of brown and white powder, a further £20 in cash, and nine mobile phones.
In the bedroom, police found a stun knuckle-duster, designed to discharge electricity.
Under a mattress, there was £730 in cash which the defendant’s partner claimed belonged to him.
Amos, of Maes y Felin, Wildmill, pleaded guilty to two counts of possession with intent to supply Class A drugs, and three counts of possession of an unlawful weapon.
The court heard she has previous convictions for possession with intent to supply heroin, for which she was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment.
Due to her previous convictions, the defendant faced a minimum prison term of seven years after being found in possession of firearms.
In mitigation, Adam Sharp described his client as an “entrenched” addict of heroin and crack cocaine, but had been clean and offence-free between 2016 and 2023.
After she received a £19,000 backdated payment of universal credit, the barrister said Amos had found herself an “attractive proposition” for those with “malign influence” in the drug trade, and as a result she relapsed.
Mr Sharp said the defendant had been providing support to her father, and had recently re-established contact with her 18-year-daughter.
Judge Richard Kember was told by Mr Sharp that the defendant was “as much a victim of drugs and the drug trade as she is a perpetrator”.
The court heard her habit cost £100 a day, but she only received £250 a fortnight in benefits.
Amos was sentenced to a total of five years and seven months’ imprisonment. She will serve half of the sentence in custody before she is released to serve the remainder on licence.