Grandad was selling cannabis to fund drug habit
A CANNABIS-SMOKING grandfather turned to selling the drug following the death of his father and a loss of income because of the Covid pandemic.
Nottingham Crown Court heard how Zaheer Ibrahim “used cannabis as a crutch” after a downturn in his fortunes in late 2019 and early 2020.
Police went to his Sherwood address and found evidence he was planning to import large quantities of weed from Canada for thousands of pounds to sell on for profit. Now he has been handed a chance to avoid jail having been given a suspended sentence.
Almas Ben-aribia, mitigating, said: “He is somebody who is 51 years old and like many went into debt because of his own addiction. He was smoking cannabis and turned to dealing it in order to fund his addiction.
“For a long time he was somebody who was contributing to society. He was someone who was working but then he lost his father on Christmas Day, 2019, and that had a significant impact on him.
“That was confounded by the Covid19 restrictions because he was someone who was in full-time employment in the hospitality and catering industry, that industry suffered very hard and he used cannabis as a crutch. He has a partner, they live together and have two sons.
“He also has custody of his 15-yearold grandson and he has caring responsibilities for his brother... and if he is sent to immediate custody he is worried his partner, despite her working full-time, will not be able to meet the bills.”
Paige Yellott, prosecuting, said officers carried out a warrant at Ibrahim’s home in Victoria Road, on October 28, 2020. She said both the defendant and his partner were present and a search found £5,035 in cash and six bags of cannabis. The prosecutor said: “The two larger bags contained 55g and 41g which, depending on how they were sold, were worth £500 to £900. It was a sophisticated operation with professional packaging labels and paraphernalia.
“It was professional and commercialised with various different strains of cannabis and evidence was found wh ich showed a n agreement to buy 1kg for 4,000 Canadian dollars, which is around £2,300.”
Ibrahim pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply cannabis.
He has a previous conviction for importation of the drug from 1995. Recorder David Bedenham handed him a nine-month prison term, suspended for two years, with 30 rehabilitation sessions and 160 hours of unpaid work.