Pregnant drug dealer who turned up to Leeds Crown Court drunk is held, despite protests
A crack and heroin dealer who was previously spared jail was taken into custody after turning up to court drunk.
Zoe Noble had been ordered to return to Leeds Crown Court this week, accused of having done little of the community sentence imposed in December of last year.
But she was unable to participate in the hearing after her barrister, Thomas Cowan, conceded she was too drunk.
Judge Mushtaq Khokhar ordered she be taken into custody so she could appear when sober, adjourning the case until Tuesday next week, October 14.
Noble, refused to go quietly and was slurring in the dock: “Please give me bail. I’m pregnant, give me a chance, I beg you.”
But Judge Khokhar responded: “You have shown total disrespect and that’s the way you need to be treated.”
A man who had accompanied 34-year-old Noble to court also tried to argue her case, but security guards were asked to remove him from the court.
Noble, of Mount Pleasant Street, Featherstone, had been given a 12-month jail sentence, suspended for 18 months, in December last year after she admitted two counts of dealing in Class A drugs.
She had mistakenly thought an undercover officer in Wakefield city centre was a drug user and said to him: “Is this for you?”
She was found to have around £500 worth of heroin and crack cocaine on her.
Judge Christopher Batty told her he would not lock her up, and would give her the chance to “break this cycle of drug misuse and offending”.
He also ordered her to enrol in an accredited 26-session drug programme, a 12-month drug rehabilitation requirement, 25 rehabilitation days with probation and an 18-month residence condition.