Driving ban catches out Leeds heroin and crack dealer in VW Passat - who avoids being locked up
A persistent banned driver was caught selling deadly drugs after police spotted him behind the wheel.
A judge at Leeds Crown Court said that Keith Redshaw did “not give a toss” about getting behind the wheel with numerous bans on his record.
When officers saw the 54-year-old driving the VW Passat on Rossefield Terrace on Bramley on the afternoon of April 26 last year, they pulled him over.
Checks found that he was on a 12-month ban, but they then found wraps of heroin and crack cocaine worth £650 in the car. He had a passenger in the vehicle who has been dealt with by the courts separately.
Redshaw, of Kingsway, Drighlington, gave a no-comment interview with the police. He continued to deny dealing, but changed his pleas to guilty on the first day of his trial for possession with intent to supply heroin and crack cocaine.
He also admitted driving while banned and without insurance, and possession of cannabis. He has 35 convictions for 116 offences, with numerous for driving.
Mitigating, Laura Addy said Redshaw had been a drug addict 20 years but had conquered his demons and started a family with his partner.
She said: “He very much was a family man, he would do the school run and look after the children. He worked nights so he could care for the children.”
His partner ran a sandwich shop in Drighlington, but when it started to lose money, and they lost family members through illness, Redshaw turned back to drugs.
She said he would be paid in drugs to work as a dealer. But she said he has since sought the help of the drug-counselling service, Forward Leeds.
Judge Penelope Belcher said she would take the unusual step of suspending the inevitable sentence, due to the progress he had made to come off drugs, and the impact it would on his children should be go into custody.
She gave him 24 months, suspended for 24 months, 100 hours of unpaid work, a six-month driving ban and drug rehabilitation requirement.