Middle-aged Leeds addicts caught dealing drugs from car leaves judge in a quandary
A pair of middle-aged men were caught dealing deadly heroin and crack cocaine, having spent years decades fighting their own addictions.
Gordon Jowett and Neil Longfield, who are aged 56 and 46 respectively and both from Leeds, entered guilty pleas to two counts of dealing in Class A drugs.
The pair had been in a VW Polo when police pulled them over in the Huddersfield area on February 9, 2023. A quantity of wraps of the drugs were located, along with cash, Leeds Crown Court heard.
Jowett, of Sutherland Crescent, Roundhay has 11 previous convictions for 36 offences. Longfield, of Ring Road, Beeston, has 27 previous convictions for 57 offences.
Mitigating for Jowett, Ashleigh Metcalfe said he had struggled with an addiction to drugs for “some 30 years”, but he spiralled in recent years after the death of his brother.
She said crack and heroin “became his life and focus” and added: “He readily accepts he became a driver to assist supplying Class A drugs. He did it to fund his habit.”
However, she said he had been drug-free for several years and was employed as a forklift driver and had been for two years.
A probation report into Longfield found that he continued to smoke crack but was working with the drug-counselling service, Forward Leeds.
Mitigating, Caroline Abraham said he had a difficult home life growing up and that his addictions were an “ongoing battle”. However, she said he had not offended since this incident.
Judge Kate Rayfield told Jowett she was “impressed” by his progress since that date, so opted to give him an 18-month community order.
He was also given a nine-month drug rehabilitation requirement, 15 rehabilitation days to attend with probation and 100 hours of unpaid work.
For Longfield, Judge Rayfield confessed she “did not know what to do with him”, given that he had stayed out of trouble for two years, but said he had been given chances to conquer his drug addiction by judges in the past.
She told him he would be kept on remand until she can make a decision. He will be returned to court on Thursday, August 21.