Man jailed after police found enough cocaine to make more than 300 street deals at his Rugby house

And a judge at Warwick Crown Court heard that Jacob Bryan admitted he had been dealing for about two years to pay off a drug debt and support his own habit.

Bryan (23) of Beswick Gardens, Rugby, was jailed for 26 months after pleading guilty to possessing cocaine with intent to supply and being concerned in the supply of the drug.

Prosecutor Andrew Tucker said that in January last year the police executed a warrant at Bryan’s home at the time in Gareth Williams Close, Rugby.

They found two packages of cocaine weighing almost 73 grams, which a drugs expert calculated could have been worth up to £3,650 once divided into £10 street deals.

On his phone officers found ‘dealers lists’ dating from April 2018 until just days before the police raid, showing a total of £6,175 owed to him for drugs he had supplied on credit.

And when he was questioned Bryan, who was subject to a community order for an offence of battery at the time, admitted he had been involved for about two years because of a debt to dealers and his own cocaine habit.

Mr Tucker said the police also found £360 in cash, which Judge Peter Cooke ordered to be forfeited under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

David Everett, defending, said Bryan, who suffers from autism, lives with his mother and works on a contract basis as a refuse collector.

“This is a young man who, to a degree, was sucked into what he did. He was with others who were using cocaine, and he began using it with them.

“At first there was no payment, but then he was told ‘you owe us so much.’ He’s then stuck with a debt, and they say ‘Here’s a large amount of cocaine, you go and deal with it.’

“He was not given it already wrapped. He had to cut it into small amounts and had to sell it. He wasn’t very good at it and was using more than he was selling, and got into more debt.”

Mr Everett said Bryan was grateful he was caught because it was a way of getting out of it, and he has become determined to get rid of his habit and has been to the community drugs team.

Adding that there was ‘clear remorse,’ Mr Everett argued that ‘it might just be a case’ where Bryan could be given a suspended sentence.

But jailing Bryan, Judge Peter Cooke told him: “I have read quite a bit about you, and it’s obvious to me that in many respects, although a young man with difficulties, you are not a bad young man.

“But you have involved yourself in a very serious, very wicked trade. Class A drugs destroy lives, and people who deal them to any degree of significance must expect immediate custody.

“I take the view your case must be seen as occupying the significant role category because, apart from anything else, you were operating, once this was up and running, with a degree of autonomy.

“There is the one lesser role feature that your involvement came about because of naivety and perhaps exploitation of your vulnerability, so I can go right to the bottom of the category and even ever so slightly beyond it.”