Dealer from Leeds caught red-handed accused of wasting police time by denying offences

Heroin and crack cocaine seller Timothy Payne was caught by police Leeds in 2019 but maintained his innocence.

Eventually admitting the offences, Judge Ray Singh addressed him at Leeds Crown Court this week and said: “You were interviewed about these matters in 2019 and it meant police had to do investigation work which costs expense and time. It may have been avoided if you had admitted it from the outset.

"You pleaded guilty at a very late stage. The ramifications for that will be immense. Even at this later stage you are taking very limited responsibility for your offending. It’s clear you were a (drug) runner.” He jailed him for 26 months.

Officers had pulled over a VW Golf in the West Park area of Leeds on March 20, 2019, prosecutor Adam Keenaghan said.

Payne was a passenger and was found to have a home-made crack pipe in his pocket, along with a small push knife on a keyring.

He was carrying a black satchel which contained 51 wraps of heroin and 21 wraps of crack cocaine. He also had two mobile phones and more than £1,630 in cash.

Messages related to drug dealing were later found on a phone. Payne, of Holtdale View, Adel, gave no comments during interview.

The driver was arrested but no further action was taken against him.

The court heard that 41-year-old Payne has 26 previous convictions for 48 offences, including multiple drug possession incidents.

For his latest offending, he admitted two counts of dealing Class A drugs and possession of an offensive weapon.

Mitigating, Lucy Brown said Payne had suffered a long-standing drug addiction. She said a friend that had been staying with him had died of an overdose and Payne was expected to pay off the deceased man’s debt, so was put to work as a runner – delivering drugs to addicts.

She said: “He felt he had no option, he was acting under direction. He was not walking away with all the proceeds. His dependence on Class A substances has been a significant factor in his offending.”

She said he had developed tuberculosis and was having treatment.