A DRUG dealer who arranged to supply crack cocaine to an undercover police officer has been jailed for 12 months.
A court heard Shevonne Wright, 29, was in danger of being jailed for a minimum seven years after it was her third conviction for supplying drugs.
But a judge ruled there were “exceptional circumstances” in Wright’s case as one of the convictions took place when she was just aged 14.
Leeds Crown court heard Wright was arrested after being caught during Operation Piperminster – an undercover crackdown on dealers in the Chapeltown area of Leeds.
Wright supplied crack cocaine and then made arrangement to supply an officer with more class A drugs on two occasions in August last year.
Wright, of Harehills Avenue, Chapeltown, pleaded guilty to supplying crack cocaine and offering to supply a class A drug.
Mark Foley, mitigating, said Wright had a drug habit but did not deal the drug for commercial gain. She bought the drug from a dealer and agreed to provide it to the officer but did not intend to make any profit for herself.
Mr Foley said: “She is a very well known character in Chapeltown. She regularly asks people and acquantances for £2 here and £2 there and that’s largely how she survives. She is to a degree looked after by the community.
“She does not supplement her income by dealing and there is no evidence that she has done.”
Judge Scott Wolstenholme said anyone convicted of dealing drugs for a third time should receive a minimum sentence of seven years unless there were exceptional circumstances.
He told Wright that he could impose a lower sentence because of her young age when she was first convicted.