A Bradford man twice caught dealing hard drugs from a car was warned by a judge he could be sent to prison for seven years if he did it again.
Mohammed Azeem, 20, was jailed for 18 months today after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to supplying crack cocaine and possessing criminal property. Azeem, of Carmona Gardens, Shipley-fields, Frizinghall, was already serving a similar prison sentence for possessing heroin with intent to supply.
Leeds Crown Court was told police officers witnessed a drug deal taking place in June last year in Butler Street, Pollard Park. They saw Azeem handing a package from the passenger seat of a car to a man.
The officers seized the package which was found to contain crack cocaine worth less than £17. They also recovered £20 from Azeem and £175 from the car, the subject of the criminal property charge.
The deal took place near a school but Stephen Couch, defending, said there was no suggestion of Azeem selling to children and the proximity of the school was a "geographical accident."
Mr Couch said Azeem lived with his mother, brothers and sister and had passed three GCSEs. He said a pre-sentence report referred to him getting into the wrong company and he had faced considerable pressure by others and been shot at.
Judge Jonathan Durham Hall, QC, said if Azeem was convicted again he would fall foul of the three strikes rule.
He said he gave him full credit for his guilty pleas, recognised the extreme pressure he was under and the progress he had made with no offending over a six-month period.
He added: "The signs are it is unnecessary to detain you much longer. From today you will serve in the region of nine months. If you are stupid enough to commit offences of drug supplying you stand a strong risk of getting seven years if you do this again."
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