First-time drug dealer caught “after ten minutes” in South Yorkshire

Plainclothes officers spotted Zico Oldham behaving suspiciously with two men in Mexborough on November 20 last year before he was searched, prosecutor Brian Outhwaite said.

Officers found he had £90 in cash and a total of £610 of heroin and cocaine, as well as two mobile phones including a "drug-line" phone which is called by users to arrange a deal.

Joy Merriam, mitigating, said Oldham was “immature” and only 19 at the time, and had left Manchester after he got the blame “following a confrontation on a night out and his brother-in-law was put in hospital.”

She said the probation officers described him as “somewhat naive and somewhat vulnerable” and he had gone out for the first time that day.

He told police he was new to the area, she said, adding: “His mother wonders if he was set up as he was caught within ten or 15 minutes.

"He has never come to the notice of the police before and pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity."

He is "willing, able and ready to comply" with the terms suggested by the probation officer, Ms Merriam said.

“A suspended prison sentence would be sufficient to meet the justice of the situation,” she added. "He has not offended since and is at low risk of offending again.”

Oldham, aged 20, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply Class A drugs.

But Judge Roger Thomas QC said: "I find this account surprising and unrealistic."

He told Oldham: "You quite clearly went into this offending with your eyes wide open and on an entirely voluntary basis.

"You chose to become a drug dealer in a park in Mexborough that is seemingly notorious for drug dealing.

"You don't use drugs. You are a fit and healthy young man. You wanted to put some money into your pocket. There's quite a lot about your case that's difficult to understand. This is out-and-out drug dealing."

He ordered Oldham to serve 27 months of detention in a Young Offenders Institution.

Read the latest cases from Sheffield Crown Court here.

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