Teen caught selling drugs two days after a caution

A shameless teenager given a police caution for possessing cannabis was arrested for dealing the drug just two days later.

Apprentice carpenter William Henderson had escaped serious punishment on January 5 after officers found him carrying cannabis and a knife. But, unrepentant, he was arrested in Canterbury within 48 hours after he was found in the back of a car with 26 wraps of the Class B drug.

Having celebrated his 18th birthday in May, he faced a custodial sentence this week, but was instead given a final warning by Judge Rupert Lowe at Canterbury Crown Court.

Hearing that Henderson still smokes cannabis three times a week, he said: “Don’t do that. I don’t care how much you want a joint, don’t do it.

“Smoking cannabis is a criminal offence and drug dealers normally go to prison.

“If you want your life to go up in smoke, you light up another joint. Got it?”

On the day of his arrest, Henderson, of Riverside Close, Bridge, was spotted in Tower Way, Canterbury, by police, who then followed him on CCTV. A Fiat was stopped and Henderson was in the back with the wraps.

He admitted possessing the drugs with intent to supply.

Defence barrister Kieran Brand said the teenager was selling cannabis to pay off his drugs debts.

The judge told him: “On January 5 you were spoken to by police for using cannabis and possessing a bladed article.

“You were given a caution – the idea being you wouldn’t commit any more offences and you could change your lifestyle.

“The idea wasn’t for you, just two days later, to be selling cannabis to other people so that they would be in the same kind of trouble you were in.

“You showed a complete con- tempt for the caution.”

Henderson was given a 12-month community order and ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work, He was also fined £200 and hit with £100 costs.

William Henderson