By Staff Reporter

Last updated at 09:29, Friday, 11 January 2013

A drug dealer caught red-handed as he sold crack cocaine to a woman in a Carlisle supermarket car park has been sent to prison for four-and-a-half years.

Stephen Rooke, of Carlisle: Jailed for four-and-a-half years after being convicted of supplying a class A drug. The court heard he had 17 previous convictions, 12 for drug offences

Stephen Rooke, 29, claimed it was the woman he met in the car park – Angel Paris Jordan – who had tried to give him drugs.

But a jury at the city’s Crown Court took less than half an hour to reject his story and find him guilty of supplying the class A drug to Miss Jordan.

After the unanimous verdict – which followed a speedy trial in which all the evidence was heard in just two hours – Judge Paul Batty QC told him: “This has been one of the shortesttrials ever heard at this crown court.

“The evidence against you was utterly overwhelming but you tried to brazen it out. However, the jury saw through it, as anyone would who had any understanding of the realities of life.”

Judge Batty said it was clear Rooke was“a committed drug dealer”.

He had 17 previous convictions, including 12 for drugs offences, ranging from cultivating cannabis to trying to sell tablets who duped people into believing were ecstasy.

During the trial, the jury heard how police were waiting in the Morrisons car park when Rooke, of Liddle Close, Lowry Hill, Carlisle, arrived to do his drug deal.

In evidence, he claimed he had been meeting the woman only so she could return £120 that she owed him.

The court heard drug squad officers watched as Miss Jordan was dropped off by a taxi next to the main entrance of Morrisons on Kingstown Road.

Rooke arrived and the two walked towards the rear of the building, where he passed the drugs over to Miss Jordan.

Rooke ran off when a detective intervened.

First published at 09:27, Friday, 11 January 2013
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk