Sheffield dealer who stole drugs from rival ‘was punished with baseball bat’

Police had an arrest warrant for Sylvester Blake when they found him in the communal stairwell of flats in Carlwood Green, in February 2018.

The 57-year-old was taken to Shepcote Lane police station where nine packets of 91 per cent purity crack cocaine, 12 packets of 95 per cent purity crack cocaine and 13 packets of 54 per cent purity heroin were found in his sock.

Prosecutor Robert Sandford said Blake told police: "I found them. I'm a drug addict."

The court heard he stole the drugs, which have a street value of £430, from someone one else, and had his hand battered with a baseball bat as punishment.

Dale Harris, mitigating, said Blake, who has been addicted to drugs for 27 years, told him: "I could got have got through that in 24 hours."

"He acknowledges some of the drugs were to be supplied."

He said Blake has reduced his Methadone intake while he has been in custody, "with the expectation he will be able to wean himself off completely."

"He says being in custody has done him some favours," Mr Harris added.

The court heard Blake failed to attend a trial for dangerous driving and driving while disqualified, and has 12 previous convictions for motoring offences.

He drove "without complete disregard for the laws of the road" through red lights and across roundabouts without stopping, at high speeds in residential areas, during a police chase.

Judge Rachael Harrison told him: "You ran, you were arrested, you lied. And you lied to a jury."

Blake, of Normanton Spring Road, Woodhouse, was convicted of possession with intent to supply Class A drugs on Thursday, and earlier pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and driving without a licence.

At Sheffield Crown Court, on Friday, the judge sentenced him to four years in prison and banned him from driving for five years and eight months.

She said a 12 month delay before he appeared at magistrates court was "regretable, but in the current climate, not unusual."

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