Leeds student with 'bright future' handed out business cards advertising cocaine and ketamine for sale

Finance undergraduate Zeshan Yasir, who was studying at Leeds Beckett, was seen with another man dishing out the cards to passing students on Moorland Road in the Hyde Park area on February 6.

When they noticed patrolling officers looking at them, they both looked away and tried to run off, Leeds Crown Court heard.

Yasir was quickly apprehended and searched. He had a satchel containing more than 14 grammes of cocaine, 33 grammes of ketamine and 12 grammes of cannabis. Worth a total of £1,300, the deals were separated into grip-seal bags.

They also found the business cards – which included the drug prices such as ketamine at £20 per gramme, or three for £50. Having been taken to the police station, the 21-year-old gave a no-comment interview.

Prosecutor Bashir Ahmed said Yasir was already on a community order at the time after being convicted last year of possessing heroin and an offensive weapon – a metal extendable baton.

He admitted three counts of possession with an intent to supply.

Mitigating, Celine Kart said his own dependency on drugs had played a significant part in his latest offending.

She said: “There was a large amount of debt that he ran up due to his addiction. No financial gain was ever recovered. This is not a classic case of street dealing. He was a full-time student of finance and was a high-performing student, but he has only himself to blame for putting that in jeopardy.”

He has been held on remand at HMP Doncaster since his arrest which Miss Kart said had been a “wake-up call” and he has since come off drugs.

The judge, Recorder Sam Green KC took the unusual step of handing him a two-year sentence, suspended for 18 months. He agreed time in prison had been a “short, sharp shock” and more jail time would see his education “disrupted further”.

He told him: “In many ways it looked like you had a bright future in front of you, but you got yourself into the dealing of drugs.”

He also gave him 25 rehabilitation days, a three-month drug rehabilitation order, and two-month electronic-tag curfew order.