Heroin and crack dealer's dad marched him to police station

A young Coventry man who was caught with 120 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine had a previous conviction for dealing – after he had been marched to a police station by his own father

And Khulekani Maphosa pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to two charges of possessing the class A drugs in August with intent to supply them.

Maphosa (20) who is from Coventry, but of no fixed address, was jailed for three years.

Prosecutor Jane Sarginson said that on August 17, plain-clothed police officers in Abbey Green, Nuneaton, saw a known drug user who seemed to be waiting for someone.

Maphosa then arrived in a taxi and went towards the user, at which the police moved in and arrested him.

He had £50 of cash in his sock, and in the waistband of his tracksuit trousers was a package containing 80 wraps of crack cocaine and 40 wraps of heroin.

Maphosa refused to give his name, but a fingerprint check quickly revealed who he was, and when he was interviewed he denied he had been dealing.

Miss Sarginson pointed out that in 2015 Maphosa had been given a youth rehabilitation order for possessing crack with intent to supply it.

That conviction had arisen after he had stayed out all night, and his father had gone to search for him and found him with 27 wraps – so had ‘marched him down to Foleshill Road police station.’

Jane Brady, defending, said Maphosa had been brought to this country from Zimbabwe by his parents ten years ago.

Sentencing Maphosa, Judge Anthony Potter told him: “You have been in this position before, because three years ago you were sentenced for precisely the same offence you face today.

“This offence marks an escalation in your offending, because on this occasions when you were stopped you were found to have not just crack cocaine, but a substantial quantity of another class A drug, heroin.

“In 2015 you received a youth rehabilitation order. That was a chance, but it seems it was a chance you didn’t take.”