Drug dealer and ecstasy
JAIL FOR MAN WHO ALSO MADE VEILED THREAT TO DOOR STAFF
A MAN in a nightclub found himself under arrest for offering to sell drugs to a bar manager working in the premises.
After being apprehended, Hamza Malik said he found the class A drugs stash “behind a toilet”, but his excuse was swiftly rejected by the judge who sentenced him at Leicester Crown Court.
Judge Robert Brown told Malik: “I’m satisfied you went into the club with these drugs on you.”
Malik, 25, of Evington Lane, Leicester, admitted offering to supply ecstasy and cocaine and possessing them, with intent to supply, on July 21, 2018.
Elizabeth Dodds, prosecuting, said Malik was at Mosh nightclub in St Nicholas Place, in the city centre, when he approached a bar manager at 1am and asked “Do you do coke or MD?”
The bar manager viewed it as an offer to supply him with cocaine or MDMA (ecstasy).
He asked the defendant “Are you selling?” and led him to a quiet spot near the cloakroom - having secretly radioed security.
The door staff then searched Malik’s pockets and recovered a bag containing 10 deal bags and “white rocks”.
Miss Dodds said the defendant asked a door supervisor why the police were being called when they could just confiscate the drugs and let him go.
Malik then told the same doorman: “You look smug, I’ll remember your face.”
The drugs amounted to 2.3 grams of 80 per cent pure ecstasy and 0.27 grams of cocaine, with a total street value of about £180.
Malik, who was 22 at the time, initially denied the offences and the case was adjourned for a trial, but
later changed his pleas. Jasvir Singh Mann, mitigating, said Malik had no previous convictions and had since kept out of trouble, following several career paths and having suffered from a bout of depression.
He said the defendant’s references read like “a very good CV” and the offences were “a real fall from grace”.
Mr Mann added: “He’s remorseful and genuinely ashamed.
“He’s demonstrated that what happened on one night in July 2018 was a serious blip in an otherwise decent life.
“His law-abiding family attend court today and he understands the disgrace he’s caused them.
“My instructions are he went to the club and was searched on the way in and then found the drugs stashed behind a toilet and took advantage of the situation.
“He approached a member of staff, which shows the level of his naivety. I know his comments (to the door supervisor) were unpleasant and unnecessary.”
Judge Brown said: “It was a threat ‘I will remember your face,’ intended to frighten.”
Mr Mann said: “He was only 22 with no experience in such matters.”
Judge Brown said: “I don’t accept he stumbled across the drugs in the lavatory before approaching the first person he saw to sell them to. “I’m minded to infer he must have had them on him when he went in.
entencing, he told Malik: “You come from a good family and I’ve read impressive references, not just from relatives but sports groups and faith groups, who all speak about a different side of you.
“I take into account your remorse and your barrister has referred to the delay. Part of the delay was because you didn’t accept your guilt until late in the proceedings but there was a 12 month delay (in charging Malik with the offences) which isn’t your responsibility.
“When the police were asking you about this matter you said ‘no comment’.
“When they asked for your phone PIN to check if you were dealing in drugs, you refused to give it to them.
“It goes against any point you may have had about cooperating with the authorities, as does the lateness of your guilty pleas. This has to be custody as it’s” class A drug dealing in theSpublic domain.”
Malik was jailed for 18 months.
This has to be custody, as it’s class A drug dealing in the public domain
Judge Robert Brown