A young drug dealer who promised that he had learned his lesson and desperately begged to be given a chance to prove himself has finally been locked up after going straight back to dealing crack cocaine on the streets.
Kaiser Uddin made a passionate plea in October last year to show that he had changed and he was given a golden opportunity to prove that he had learned from his mistakes but he soon ended up throwing it all away, Grimsby Crown Court heard.
Uddin, 19, of Berkeley Street, Scunthorpe, admitted possessing heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply on November 11, 2021 and possessing crack cocaine with intent to supply on July 25 this year.
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He was also in breach of a 16-month suspended custodial sentence imposed in October last year for three offences of supplying heroin and crack cocaine and two offences of affray.
Tom Jackson, prosecuting, said that, in the first incident in 2021, police spotted Uddin involved in a drug exchange in Scunthorpe. A woman threw a bag over her shoulder into a garden. Uddin had £152 cash on him.
CCTV footage revealed another drugs exchange 15 minutes earlier. The bag was found in the garden and it had 36 wraps of crack cocaine, with 92 per cent purity, another nine wraps of crack cocaine with 91 per cent purity and 23 wraps of heroin. The total street value was £770.
On July 25 this year, police detained and searched Uddin and found crack cocaine in his clothes. He “became a little shifty and almost obstructive” and, at the police station, a strip search revealed that he had a plastic bag in his underwear.
It contained 91 wraps of crack cocaine, weighing 11.33g, with a street value of at least £910. He made no comment during police interview. He had convictions for seven previous offences.
Craig Lowe, mitigating, said that Uddin had been given an “ideal opportunity to mend his ways” when a suspended sentence was imposed in October but “unfortunately he is back before the court” again.
“He knows the court has no choice but to activate the suspended sentence order,” said Mr Lowe. “It didn’t work at all. He apologises for what he describes as poor decisions.”
Uddin had applied for jobs but, because he had a record for supplying Class A drugs, he did not get them and was refused. “He wanted to make his parents proud but he was unable to do so,” said Mr Lowe. “He was unable to get a job.” He began drinking more, became more depressed and turned back to what he knew – supplying Class A drugs to have money to live on. “He says he is very sorry,” said Mr Lowe.
“He knows that he has only got himself to blame, having been given an ideal opportunity.” Uddin claimed that he had learned his lessons and had said: “I am so very sorry. I would do anything not to be here.”
Judge Michael Fanning told Uddin: “I spelled out to you what would happen if you got into trouble again. You continued to be a drug dealer.” At the hearing in October when Uddin was given a suspended sentence, the teenager had written a letter telling the court what a mistake he had made because “my head wasn’t in the right place” and that his life had gone downhill through the people he had been “messing about” with at the time.
He had told the court on that occasion that he had been sent by his family to Bangladesh to “sort myself out” and he had said: “I really want to prove to you that I have changed.” He had aspirations at the time to get an apprenticeship and he told the judge: “Let me prove to you that I have changed. I will do anything. I have learned from my mistakes.”
Judge Fanning said: “What you have done in a clear-headed way is plead guilty and say how sorry you are but then immediately gone on to continue to supply drugs to people that you know are vulnerable.
“These people are hooked on Class A drugs. They don’t get off these drugs very easily – if they get off them.” Those people were desperate for drugs and they stole and robbed in order to pay people like Uddin for them.
“You are a selfish young man looking out for you and you don’t care for your society,” said Judge Fanning. “I gave you a chance to straighten yourself out and make the best of your opportunities to sort yourself out.”
Uddin had been given a “warning shot across the bows” by being given a suspended sentence previously.
“You ultimately made your choices to he back into dealing for profit,” said Judge Fanning. “You are out for yourself. The harm is the community and, specifically, to the individuals who steal and rob to to pay you.
“You are street dealing and you are topping up other street suppliers. You clearly expected a significant financial advantage. You clearly knew the scale of the operations that you were involved in. You further offended when this court gave you a suspended sentence.”
Uddin was sent to a young offenders’ institution for two years and nine months. The sentence included a consecutive one year after part of the suspended sentence was activated. The £352 cash seized will be forfeited and given to charity.
Original artice: https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/all-about/scunthorpe