Ageing addict with 35-year habit found hiding drug stash in Kinder Egg during Leeds stop and search
A life-long addict confessed he was paid in drugs to be a dealer after a stop and search patrol in Leeds.
Mark Smith, 52, tried to conceal wraps of crack cocaine and heroin when officers pulled over the silver Toyota Corolla on Queenswood Drive near Headingley on January 11.
Smith was a rear-seat passenger and when he was asked to step out, a Kinder Egg tub fell from his trouser leg, prosecutor Oishee Dey told Leeds Crown Court.
It contained 91 wraps of crack cocaine and heroin worth £910. He has a previous convictions for dealing Class B drugs in 2021.
Smith, of Lea Farm Drive, Kirkstall, appeared in court via video link from HMP Doncaster where he was being held on remand. He admitted two counts of dealing in Class A drugs.
Mitigating, Rebecca Randall said: “He is clearly a drug user who has been under the instructions of others.
“He is a drug user to fund his own habit. He simply got free drugs for holding these drugs.
“He tells me he has been a user of crack and heroin for 35 years. The last time he was really clean was when he was 18-years-old.”
She said that despite his addictions, he had obtained a degree in computer graphics and had previously lived in Tokyo.
Judge Ray Singh told Smith that selling drugs to feed his own habit was not mitigation.
He added: “It’s unforgivable that you go out and supply those drugs, knowing the misery and untold suffering they cause.
“Somebody who is acutely addicted to those drugs knows exactly what they are doing.”
He jailed him for 28 months.
A second defendant who was in the car has denied two counts of dealing in Class A drugs. He will stand trial in November next year.