By Staff Reporter

Last updated at 12:07, Tuesday, 18 September 2012

A Carlisle man has been jailed after failing to convince a judge that the drugs found in his fridge were somebody else's.

Adam Bendjerad, 27, was arrested after police swooped on his flat in Warwick Road and found a stash of amphetamine in his fridge.

He claimed he was looking after them for a stranger who had phoned him and asked him to store them on his behalf until they were needed.

Bendjerad pleaded guilty to possessing the class B drug with intent to supply it – but insisted the “supply” would have consisted only of handing it back to its original owner. And he gave evidence to a judge at Carlisle Crown Court to support that story.

He said the man he didn't know had phoned him, saying he could use a small amount of the amphetamine himself if he kept the rest of it safe. Bendjerad said he could not remember exactly how long he had had the drugs in his fridge, or when the man said he would return to collect them.

“I was given the package just to keep hold of, until someone came to pick it up,” he said.

Bendjerad, who had previous convictions for drug dealing, said he would not have passed the amphetamine to anyone other than the mystery man who had phoned him and neither would he have sold it to anyone on the street.

But after hearing his explanation the judge, Recorder John Gibson, said he was “quite sure” he should reject it.

He said Bendjerad had come up with “no sensible way” of explaining why the drugs were in his possession.

“I am sure you had those drugs to deal them,” he said.

Bendjerad was jailed for 12 months.

First published at 11:29, Tuesday, 18 September 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk