Dealer ripped off clubbers with sugar instead of drugs
MAN RUMBLED AFTER POLICE TEST
A DRUG dealer “ripped off” partygoers by selling them sugar instead of packets of MDMA.
Joshua Kanda twice assumed that the Newcastle clubbers would be gullible enough to fall for the trick when he gave them what he said was the the class A drug but was really sucrose.
A court heard that he made a total of £60 from the scam in June and July 2018.
But the 26-year-old’s con was rumbled when the powder was tested by police after they’d been watching him over a number of weeks.
Officers also spotted him supplying a small amount of cannabis to two people in Newcastle in July and September of the same year.
Now, Kanda, of Grosvenor Road, in Jesmond, Newcastle, has been given a 12-month community order, with a two-month curfew between 7am and 7pm, after he pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud and two of supplying a class B drug.
Sue Baker, prosecuting at Newcastle Magistrates’ Court, said Kanda was being investigated in the summer of 2018 as part of a bigger Northumbria Police drugs operation.
She said: “Evidence in relation to Mr Kanda relates to four different transactions in 2018.
“On two occasions, the defendant has supplied MDMA to two persons but it was sucrose and, on two other occasions, he supplied cannabis.
“Those cannabis deals were worth £20 each.”
The court heard that Kanda had moved from London to Newcastle at the age of 12 after a difficult childhood and was lightly convicted.
Michael Crowe, defending, said Kanda had been at a “low ebb” at the time but hadn’t been in any more trouble since.
He added: “Essentially, he’s ripped-off some partygoers by getting them to buy MDMA and then he’s handed them sugar.
“It was very small money involved.”
Kanda was also ordered to pay £85 costs and a £30 victim surcharge.
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On two occasions, the defendant has supplied MDMA to two persons but it was sucrose and, on two other occasions, he supplied cannabis
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