Daughter told police where daddy's £14,000 crack cocaine stash in Leeds home was kept
The young daughter of a drug dealer told police that she had seen her dad hiding drugs in the bathroom after a raid on their Leeds home.
Bradley Hector had stashed more than £14,000 worth of crack cocaine behind a panel in the property on Cranmore Crescent in Middleton, which officers failed to initially find during the bust on September 3 last year.
But the youngster then told officers that she had seen “daddy putting something behind the panel in the toilet”, Leeds Crown Court heard this week.
She led officers to the location and they found the loose panel which contained five packages each containing 85 wraps of crack cocaine. There were also 47 plastic gloves each with a small rock of crack cocaine in each finger.
The total value came to £14,650, prosecutor Benjamin Bell told the court.
Hector, 27, admitted possession with intent to supply Class A drugs but only on the day his trial was due to begin. He put forward a basis that his home was being used a storage unit for the drugs by a dealer higher up the chain, which was accepted by the Crown.
Hector has previous convictions for violence and driving matters.
Mitigating, Imran Khan said that Hector had a serious drug addiction and had run up a debt, so agreed to store the crack cocaine at his home.
He said he was working as a roofer but could not afford to pay the money owed.
Mr Khan added: “He felt he had no choice at the time but to agree to store the drugs. He understands now that he had other choices.
“He agrees he could have sought help and could have gone to the police. He feared for the safety of his children.”
He said he was “ashamed” of the situation he had put his family in but was now free of drugs.
Judge Anesh Pema told Hector that those who store drugs should expect to go to prison, but had taken into accounts his remorse and the mitigation.
He gave him 24 months’ jail, suspended for 24 months, with 20 rehabilitation days and 250 hours of unpaid work.
He said: “I’m taking a chance on you, given what I have read about you.”