A FORMER soldier became a cocaine supply middle manager in a desperate bid to pay off a drug debt which “was simply not going away”.

Haythem Magdy Selim, who served in Iraq as a paramedic during his military service, is starting a six-year jail term after turning to crime while out of work during the coronavirus pandemic.

Selim, 42, was stopped by police in a layby near Braithwaite, Keswick, because of an apparent irregularity with the number plate of his black BMW.

Selim claimed he was travelling back to West Cumbria having visiting Accrington to buy a spare part for his vehicle, Carlisle Crown Court heard.

“When pushed on those details he was vague and couldn’t show any receipts or documents to support that so officers were suspicious,” said Gerard Rogerson, prosecuting. “Mr Selim, through the process, appeared nervous and agitated, further arousing their suspicions.”

And when police searched the BMW, they found almost three-quarters of a kilo of cocaine — potentially worth £72,000 at street level, a detective concluded — within three large bags the glove box. Almost £400 cash was located elsewhere within the vehicle.

WhatsApp chat with another person found on a phone seized by police showed illegal involvement. “It was indicative of an established supply relationship between the participants,” said Mr Rogerson.

Telecoms and road camera data showed Selim had made almost a dozen trips between his home town of Whitehaven and Liverpool in different vehicles.

Indeed Selim had registered five cars in his name at various times in the months before the stoppage. “The Crown would submit that was a process to detract from using the same vehicle and it being detected on a regular basis,” said the prosecutor. “He is, the Crown would describe, a middle manager. He not only supplies quantities of drugs to be sold by others at street level, he is involved at wholesale level as well in terms of collection of these quantities.”

Selim, a man of previous good character, admitted possessing cocaine with intent to supply.

“He will say he was pressurised somewhat into that,” said his lawyer, Sean Harkin. “He basically got himself involved in drugs supply, couldn’t extract himself from it and felt pressured to carry on.

“He accepts he did carry on because he was trying to pay off a debt. Regardless of his actions, his debt was simply not going away.

Mr Harkin said Selim’s mother and father were at court with him, adding: “He has effectively got himself into trouble because his routine of work throughout his adult life has come to an end because of the Covid pandemic.”

Selim, of Irt Avenue, Whitehaven, was jailed for six years . “The supply of class A drugs, you will appreciate, is always serious,” he was told by Recorder Andrew Nuttall. “This was not one supply but many. You have been involved in at least 11 trips.”