Text messages helped catch Leeds weed dealer after house search
A drug dealer was forced to admit his guilt after his phone revealed messages advertising the products he was stocking.
Officers found relatively moderate amounts of drugs at the Leeds home of Pahrez Hill, but he had little answer to the messages he was sending out on his phone to users.
The 24-year-old admitted dealing in cannabis, and possession of heroin and MDMA.
He appeared at Leeds Crown Court where he was spared custody, having never been in trouble before.
The court heard that police stopped an Audi being driven by Hill at a garage on Meanwood Road on the afternoon of February 7 last year.
They searched him and found a small bag of cannabis and mobile phones.
Officers then searched his home on Mexborough Grove in Chapeltown and recovered £1,945 in cash, sets of scales with bags on cannabis, and cigarette-paper wraps of heroin and MDMA.
The value of the cannabis found came to £350, the heroin was worth £190 and the MDMA worth £40.
He initially faced charges of dealing in Class A drugs, but the text messages on his phones suggested he was only dealing in cannabis.
Hill told probation the cannabis was for personal use and did not have any idea how the other drugs got into his home.
He said he had been smoking cannabis since the age of 13, and claims to have anxiety and PTSD.
Little mitigation was offered by his barrister Kara Frith after the judge said she would follow the recommendation of probation and keep him out of prison.
However, Ms Frith said Hill had entered guilty pleas at an early stage.
The judge, Recorder Catherine Silverton, gave him an 18-month community order with 150 hours of unpaid work to complete, and 20 days of rehabilitation with probation.