Police found £17,000 worth of cannabis belonging to a drug dealer after he was investigated for mortgage fraud.
Deva Lall, 26, was jailed for 20 months yesterday (Sept 6) after pleading guilty to fraud and drugs offences.
Leeds Crown Court heard Lall lied about his income to obtain mortgages for a £195,000 house on Sunningdale Avenue, Leeds and a £144,000 apartment in Northern Street, Leeds.
He told banks he was a self-employed courier earning £57,000 in order to get the money and gave them false details about his accountant.
Police arrested Lall at the David Lloyd Leisure Centre, where he was a member, on June 14. They searched his Audi A3 and found five mobile phones in his gym bag and keys to his rented apartment on Wood Moor Court, Alwoodley.
Officers went to the property and found cannabis with a street value of just over £4,000 in plastic bags marked: ‘Your personal laundry bag. With our compliments’.
A further £13,000 of the class B drug were found in cases at Lall’s mother’s home on Green Lane, Cookridge. The drugs, along with more laundry bags and electronic scales, were hidden in padlocked cases which Lall had keys for.
The mobile phones were examined and were found to contain contact names and texts linking him to the supply of drugs.
Lall pleaded guilty to two offences of fraud, two of converting criminal property, two of possession of cannabis with intent to supply and a further charge of supplying cannabis.
Richard Wright, mitigating, said Lall accepted that he had been selling drugs for commercial gain and he would be jailed.
He said: “He graduated from a user to the social supply of friends. He became rather good at that supply and extended that network.”
Referring to the property offences, Mr Wright said Lall had overstated his income at a time when millions of other people were doing the same to obtain mortgages.
Jailing him, judge Simon Hickey, said: “You were willing and able to deal with all and sundry on the streets.”