Dealer twice caught selling crack and heroin in Leeds is released over 'exploitation' claims
A dealer who was caught twice in the same area of Leeds selling deadly heroin and crack cocaine has escaped with a suspended sentence.
The judge at Leeds Crown Court accepted that Dillon Wall had been “exploited” and ordered to sell drugs to pay off a debt.
Police had noticed a vehicle being driven in an erratic manner in the Scott Hall area on the evening of July 24 last year.
Following it, the car then turned into a petrol station on Stainbeck Road and Wall got out of the passenger side and ran.
The 20-year-old was quickly arrested and then said to officers that he was “scared” of an unnamed dealer and “owed him a lot of money”.
He was found to have 20 wraps of crack cocaine and nine wraps of heroin. His home address was searched and eight MDMA pills were found, along with 16 tablets of the synthetic psychedelic drug, 2C-B.
But having been released, police again noticed a car in early January this year being driven erratically in the Scott Hall area, which then hit a traffic post, prosecutor Zanisha Herbert said.
Hall was detained nearby and made similar claims about being made to sell drugs.
He had 14 wraps of heroin and two of crack cocaine on him.
Appearing in court over a video link from HMP Doncaster, Hall admitted four counts of dealing in Class A drugs, two counts of possession of Class A drugs and one of Class B drugs.
Hall, of Church Crescent, Moortown, has no previous convictions.
Mitigating, Charles Blatchford said: “This has all the hallmarks of someone being exploited and intimidated. He has no influence.
“He is the interface with the end user. There was no financial gain for him.
“This is his first experience of custody and heis finding it incredibly intimidating.”
Judge Simon Phillips KC said he was “persuaded by the narrowest of margins” to suspend the his sentence, giving him a 24-month stint in a young offender institute, suspended for 24 months.
He was ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and 20 rehabilitation days with probation, and was also put on a GPS monitoring tag for six months.
Reserving the case to himself, Judge Phillips warned Hall: “ I hope you realise the course the court has taken today is an exceptional one.
“Be under no illusion, if you breach this order, or commit a further offence, you will go back to detention.”