Mansfield drug dealer tried to '˜ride around' police officers

Donald Braddock, 23, of Clifford Street, Mansfield, pleaded guilty to four counts of possessing heroin and cannabis with intent to supply at Nottingham Crown Court.

Plainclothes policemen in an unmarked car were waiting for Braddock when he left his house at 12.35pm on April 2, last year, and got on his bike, following ‘suggestions that he had been involved in drug supply.’

Braddock tried to ride around the officers but was arrested.

Hal Ewing, prosecuting, said: “He told officers he had controlled drugs in his jacket and asked: ‘Am I going to jail?’”

Officers found six wraps of heroin on him and further quantities of heroin and cannabis, as well as £165 of money from drug sales, in his house.

He told officers he was on his way to sell two of the heroin wraps, for which he charged £10 each. The other wraps were for his own use.

He said the cannabis was also for personal use but then admitted he had sold cannabis to a friend two hours before his arrest.

Mr Ewing said Braddock owed £900 and had arranged to pay off the drug debt by dealing. He had been dealing for two months.

The court heard Braddock had previous convictions for the production of cannabis in May 2011 for which he received a 12-month sentence, suspended for 12 months.

His arrest for drugs also put him in breach of a suspended sentence imposed in July 2014 for criminal damage.

Katrina Wilson, mitigating, said Braddock had no previous convictions relating to Class A drugs and he had entered his guilty plea at the earliest opportunity.

She said: “He said he was pleased to be arrested. He wanted the position he was in to stop. He wanted to stop the cycle he was in.”

She said that Braddock, a cannabis user, had been introduced to heroin by his drug dealer ‘and like so many young men and women he accrued a debt.’

“He was offered a way out by working for the dealer to pay off the debt,” said Ms Wilson. “Violence was threatened.”

Recorder Peter Cooke praised Braddock’s ‘notable candour’ when interviewed by police but said he had been given suspended sentences in the past.

He sentenced Braddock to a total of two years in prison.