"Coventry man who dealt drugs after losing his job during first lockdown avoids prison"

[dutchman]

"If you go to jail they just find another fool to take your place"



When a young Coventry man found himself out of work because of the first Covid lockdown last year, he turned to drug-dealing to earn some cash.

But after selecting Leamington ‘at random’ for his money-making enterprise, Elvis Boateng was arrested after plain-clothed officers spotted him selling to a known addict.

And at Warwick Crown Court, less than half a mile from where he was caught, he pleaded guilty to possessing heroin and cocaine with intent to supply them.

Boateng, 19, of Letchlade Close, Henley Green, was sentenced to two years in prison suspended for 18 months and was ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid work.

Prosecutor Omar Majid said that in August last year police officers on plain-clothed patrol saw Boateng with a known drug-user in Riverside, just off Adelaide Road in Leamington.

He was stopped and when the officers searched him they found seven wraps of cocaine, four of heroin and £135 in cash.

He was arrested and police then searched his bedroom at his home, where they found a further ten wraps of crack cocaine and another £510 in cash.

When he was interviewed Boateng said he had been on his way home when he was arrested, but had come to Leamington to sell drugs "to anyone who would buy them", having chosen the town at random.

Sentencing Boateng, Recorder Rachel Brand QC told him: “Getting involved in dealing class A drugs is a very serious business. It’s not something you can just turn to casually if you have lost your job or you’re not getting enough shifts.

“Make no mistake, people go to jail for this sort of thing, and for a long time.

“To those people who got you involved in this drug-dealing, you are utterly expendable. You’re disposable, just like when you finish your drink you throw away the bottle, if you go to jail they just find another fool to take your place.

“Only a custodial sentence is appropriate. The only question is whether it should be immediate or suspended – and I am just, but only just, persuaded that I can suspend it.”