Drug dealer from Wakefield jailed over bizarre traveller-threat story
He narrowly avoided custody previously
A young drug dealer who was spared custody has been locked up after breaching his suspended sentence with a bizarre story about travellers.
Sam Cawood was previously caught peddling crack cocaine and heroin in Wakefield but avoided jail due to his “naivety”.
But the 24-year-old has completed just a few hours of the 200 hours of unpaid work he was ordered to carry out, and missed two appointments with probation.
He then failed to turn up for court. He appeared at Leeds Crown Court this week over a video link from HMP Lincoln.
He admitted two breaches of the order, and failing to surrender to custody.
Cawood claimed he was being coerced to work for travellers who had threatened him and his family.
But Judge Simon Batiste told him his story “did not hang together easily”, so activated all 22 months of his suspended sentence.
Cawood had received the sentence in February last year after he was caught selling drugs on the Eastmoor estate in Wakefield.
This included the 200 hours of unpaid work and 35 days with probation.
The court heard that he had since moved to St Ives in Cornwall and struggled to stay in contact with probation.
Mitigating on his behalf, Maleka Akuany said on a return to Wakefield, he was then forced to carry out work for travellers who made threats and he was “under their thumb”.
He also had no phone so Ms Akuany said he could not return to the south coast, which was questioned by Judge Batiste.
She added that Cawood, of Carbis Bay, Cornwall, now wants to start his own landscaping firm with £10,000 he had saved.
Again, Judge Batiste raised questions.
He said: “If it’s some kind of forced slavery, generally people in that position do not have savings of £10,000. It does not fit together.
“It’s unlikely you would have been able to save that type of money. You would have been able to get to Cornwall.
“You have done virtually none of the [suspended sentence] order.
“You were given a chance and you have not grasped it.”