By Staff Reporter

Last updated at 12:58, Tuesday, 14 August 2012

A self-confessed drug dealer is to be called to give evidence in court after claiming that the heroin he supplied was only to his girlfriend.

Wayne Smithson, 30, appeared via video link from Durham prison at Carlisle Crown Court to plead guilty to possessing both heroin and amphetamines with intent to supply them.

But while he admitted supplying the amphetamine – a class B drug – to a small group of his friends, he insisted that he had only ever given the heroin, a more serious class A drug, to his partner.

This was not accepted by the prosecution.

And prosecutor Dick Binstead told the judge: “It is our position that it was for commercial supply – no doubt in the same way that the amphetamine was.”

He said it mattered because Smithson, of Nook Street, Workington, would receive a stiffer sentence for supplying the heroin to his friends than he would for supplying just to his girlfriend.

Mr Binstead said the prosecution case against him was based on numerous text messages found on his mobile phone.

Judge Peter Hughes QC said Smithson would have to attend court in person next time, to give evidence in support of his claim.

But he warned him that he would “inevitably” be going to prison no matter what was decided at the next hearing, on September 17.

In the meantime Smithson was remanded in custody.

First published at 11:28, Tuesday, 14 August 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk