Former gardener who turned to drug dealing is jailed over county lines role in Shrewsbury
A former gardener who turned to drug dealing after losing his job and home has been jailed after peddling cocaine in Shrewsbury.
Benjamin Ellsey, of no fixed abode, was spotted in the Shropshire county town at about 10pm on March 4 last year by police officers who suspected him of a being a member of the suspected 'Fire Line' county lines drug dealing operation.
Officers arrested the 34-year-old and conducted a strip search, Shrewsbury Crown Court was told on Thursday (April 17) and found seven wraps of crack cocaine in his jogging bottoms.
A mobile phone with 77 calls relating to drug dealing was also found in his possession.
The court heard on Thursday that the county line provided drugs from Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury and that phone evidence showed Ellsey played a “significant role”.
However, Ms Rosemary Proctor, defending, said Ellsey had fallen into drug use after the breakdown of his relationship.
She said the father of two had been a “functioning addict” for six years before finding himself homeless and out of work.
“So he started dealing to feed his own habit,” she told the court.
However, she added that prior to his arrest he had been a man of previous good character with no criminal convictions.
But Judge Trevor Meegan said while it was a mitigating factor, as was his age, any prison sentence coud not be suspended.
“This is class A drug dealing,” he told Ellsey as he jailed him for two years and three months.