Jail for Wolverhampton dealer caught with cocaine and heroin
A man who was found with a large knife and 22 wraps of crack cocaine and heroin in his car has been jailed for three years.
Michael Hewitt, aged 21, was spotted by police sitting in a silver Vauxhall Astra in Parkfield Road, Wolverhampton, on November 17 last year, a court heard.
The officers thought he 'looked frightened', prompting them to carry out an automatic number plate recognition check on the vehicle which was found to have no insurance, said Mr Hugh O'Brien Quinn, prosecuting.
Hewitt reversed the Astra on to a car park and appeared to be trying to hide something, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.
As police went to approach the car, the defendant started to drive off but then stopped and was arrested. A search of the vehicle revealed 10 wraps of crack cocaine and 12 of heroin, with a total street value of £220.
Officers also found £60 cash and, in the driver's door pocket, an eight-inch bladed knife which Hewitt claimed was for his own protection. More checks showed that he had not passed a driving test, so had no licence.
Hewitt, of Ryhope Walk, Pendeford, pleaded guilty to possessing both crack cocaine and heroin with intent to deal and possession of a knife. The court heard that he had no previous convictions.
Defending him, Mr Jasvir Mann said that despite a difficult childhood and a father who was a drug addict, Hewitt had qualified as an electrical installer and worked at JLR on a short-term placement but had found a permanent job difficult to find.
The court also heard that he had suffered a personal tragedy over the ill health of his girlfriend's child by a previous partner, and that the child had recently died.
But sentencing him, the judge, Recorder Martin Butterworth said that in spite of Hewitt's clean record, he had no choice but to jail him as otherwise people in his position would think, or be encouraged to think, that they would be treated less harshly by the courts.
He told Hewitt: "You became involved in this offence in order to make money that you felt you desperately needed for your family but the means you chose placed you at considerable risk. The consequences are that you must face a custodial sentence.
"I can't ignore the fact that you had a knife and would have used it in the furtherance of drug-dealing if you needed to."
Hewitt was jailed for a total of three years and disqualified from driving for a year on his release from prison.
