Judge tears into Leeds dealer for 'peddling filth on the streets'
A judge tore into a drug dealer who was caught twice by police, telling him he deserved jail for “peddling filth”.
Liam Craven had been selling cannabis, but having been released under investigation, was then found to be trading in crack cocaine a year later.
He was jailed at Leeds Crown Court but only after a volley of stern words from Recorder Tony Watkin, who told him: “Your first offence should have acted as a clarion call to you.
“It was not, it worked the opposite way. A year later you were out there on the street, peddling filth - Class A drugs to members of the public with all the misery it causes.
“You ignored the consequences of the miserty it creates.
“You do not understand when you deal in those drugs, you are peddling something that causes evil on the streets that goes right through our society and beyond.
“You have very much not learned your lesson.”
The court heard that plain-clothes officers became suspicious of Craven in a taxi, trying to hide his face, when they were patrolling the Cross Flatts area on March 9, 2021.
When they approached and told him they were officers, he tried to escape. He threw two mobile phones under the taxi and resisted, stamping on one officer’s foot, kicking one in the stomach and biting the hand of one.
Bringing him under control, they found £115 in cash on him. They searched his home and found around five grammes of cannabis, dealer bags and weighing scales.
They found incriminating messages sent out on the phones to scores of people, advertising drugs for sale.
Despite this, Craven maintained the cannabis was for personal use and denied he was dealing, prosecutor Jamie Wilson said.
Then on March 14, 2022, he was a passenger in a Mazda that police pulled over in Armley.
Craven got out and ran, throwing a blue carrier bag in a bush as he went. He was arrested and the bag recovered. It contained £1,210 in cash.
He was taken to the police station and strip searched, where he appeared to transfer a package from his underwear to his hand, but refused to hand it over.
It was eventually confiscated and contained more than 40 wraps of crack cocaine.
Craven, of Castle Mount , New Farnley, admitted dealing in Class A and Class B drugs, two counts of assault on emergency workers and one of possession of cannabis.
Mitigating, Ed Youlton said Craven had started dealing to initially fund his own habit, but continued to “fund his lifestyle”.
Mr Youlton said 23-year-old Craven has a young child and his partner is expecting a second.
He said it had been more than three years since his last arrest and had not offended since.
Recorder Watkin raised questions as to why the police and Crown Prosecution Service had not brought the case to court sooner, and said he would adjust Craven’s sentence downwards to reflect the delay.
He jailed him for 28 months.