Man jailed for drug offence

A Peterborough man found in a house with £1,500 worth of drugs less than two weeks after being sentenced for a drugs offence has been jailed.

Eleven days after being sentenced by Cheltenham Magisrates for a drugs offence, Rivaldo Da Rosa, 22, was found in a house in the town with £1,500 worth of cocaine bagged up ready for sale on September 17, a court heard.

Da Rosa also had two mobile phones with him, one of which was a known ‘county lines’ dealers’ phone that had been regularly sending out texts to about 100 people offering drugs for sale, Gloucester

Crown Court was told.

However, the prosecution accepted that Da Rosa, of Eyrescroft, Bretton, was merely a ‘custodian’ for the drugs and phones and had been looking after them for others.

He pleaded guilty on that basis to a charge of possessing cocaine with intent to supply on 17th September last year and was jailed for 19 months by Recorder Robin Sellers.

The judge said Da Rosa’s sentence could not be suspended as he had committed the offence despite having a ‘shot across the bows’ just a few days earlier, on September 6, when magistrates fined him £400 for cannabis possession.

Da Rosa’s only previous criminal conviction had been at Cheltenham Magistrates Court on Sept 6th when he admitted possessing cannabis.

Susan Cavender, for Da Rosa, said Da Rosa has been in this country since March 2020 and has always been in work. He had gone to stay with people he knew in Cheltenham and got caught up in the drugs operation there, she said.

The judge told Da Rosa “It seems to me that the circumstances were plain and it was obvious to you what was going on in that house. .”