Teenage scooter-riding drug dealer carrying machete spotted selling in Leeds city centre
Young drug runner armed with machete given opportunity by judge, but is warned.
A young drug dealer avoided being locked up after a judge took mercy on him because of his age.
Scooter-riding Zacharia Addo was spotted by officers delivering Class A drugs to users on the street , Leeds Crown Court heard.
He was also carrying a large machete at the time.
The 19-year-old admitted two counts of dealing in Class A drugs - crack cocaine and heroin - and possession of a bladed article.
Prosecutor Zanisha Herbert said officers in an unmarked car spotted a group of around five or six males gathering on Woodhouse Square near the city centre on January 12.
Just after 9pm Addo arrived on a scooter. When the officers approached, the males scattered and Addo was apprehended.
They found the large machete on him, along with a small number of wraps of heroin and crack cocaine.
They searched his home address and found more evidence of dealing.
Addo, of Morley Grove, Beeston, has no previous convictions.
No mitigation was offered by his barrister after Judge Ray Singh said he would not lock him up.
Judge Singh alluded to his age, his previously-clean record and his difficult upbringing, although no details were disclosed.
He told him: “You are still relatively young and you have committed some serious offences.
“Those who supply Class A drugs can expect to go to prison, ordinarily it’s four-and-a-half years.
“You were no doubt involved in supplying those drugs.
“You need to stop because if it ever happens again, it will start at four-and-a-half years.”
He gave him two years’ jail, suspended for two years, with 80 hours unpaid work, 20 rehabilitation days and a six-month drug rehabilitation requirement.