By Staff Reporter

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

A man from west Cumbria has been jailed for three years after being caught going out on his bike to sell drugs.

Wayne Smithson, 31, was arrested on June 7 – just a day after another court had given him a conditional discharge for another drugs offence.

At Carlisle Crown Court, Smithson pleaded guilty to possessing both heroin, a class A controlled drug, and amphetamine, which is designated as class B, with intent to supply them.

He had originally insisted that he would only have supplied the amphetamine to a small group of friends.

And he claimed he would have given the heroin only to his partner.

He was expected to give evidence to back up those claims at a special fact-finding hearing in court yesterday.

But instead his defence advocate Mark Shepherd said that after considering the full prosecution evidence – including incriminating messages on his mobile phone – Smithson was now prepared to admit that he was a commercial drug dealer, selling the banned substances on the street for a profit.

The court heard Smithson, of Nook Street, Workington, had been arrested by police who had spotted him on his bike just a few hours after being given a “perhaps surprisingly lenient” sentence at his local magistrates’ court.

He was found to have two mobile phones, a pink purse in which to keep the money he made, five bags of amphetamine and one of heroin.

Mr Shepherd told the court that at the time Smithson – a “long standing amphetamine addict” – was “completely out of control”. Mr Shepherd told the judge: “His drug addiction had taken over.”

He said that Smithson accepted that prison was inevitable but he hoped to give up associating with his drug-taking friends once he was released.

“He has a wide circle of friends who don’t take drugs, and he hopes that if he associates more with them they will keep him out of trouble,” he said.

He said Smithson recognised he had to stay clear of drugs in the future because he knew the police would be looking out for him once he was out of jail.

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