'Class A drugs drive devastation and destruction through people's lives': Judge's message to county lines dealer as he jails him for more than three years
A county lines drug dealer caught in the act in a Shrewsbury alleyway by plain-clothes police officers has been jailed for more than three years.
Benjamin Golding of Judith Butts Gardens, Shrewsbury was spotted by keen-eyed officers with a known drug user down an alleyway in Monkmoor Road on August 8 this year, Shrewsbury Crown Court heard on Thursday.
The 26-year-old was searched, where police found three wraps of what later was confirmed to be heroin.
The court heard that Golding was arrested before officers then visited the defendant's home address at the time, a minute's walk from the alleyway, which he shared with his partner and three children.
There, officers found £500 in cash, 44 wraps of cocaine and another 36 wraps of heroin, along with two mobile phones.
One of the phones was examined and found to be be part of the "CJ" county lines drug line and messages on the phone, and showed Golding had played a "significant role" dealing cocaine and heroin between April 29 this year until his arrest
The court also heard that the offence was committed while Golding was on a suspended sentence for an "unrelated matter" for which he was given a 12-month custodial sentence, suspended for 18 months.
However, Ms Debra White, mitigating, said that Golding had been getting his life back together and had since been offered work following his own issues with drugs and homelessness. She also reminded the court that he had admitted his offences at the first opportunity.
But Judge Deni Mathews told the defendant: "You must understand, and I'm sure that you do, that class A drugs drive devastation and destruction through people's lives. It has done it to your life and it does it to the people you supply to. That's why it is so serious to be involved in the supply of class A drugs."
He also added that while probation reports suggested Golding was at "low risk" of reoffending, his offending had been aggravated by the presence of young children in the house where he was keeping the drugs.
"You must also appreciate when a court imposes a suspended sentence it makes it difficult for another court not to take action and activate that suspended sentence," the judge said.
He jailed Golding for three years for the class A drug dealing, with a further four months to be served consecutively for breaching his suspended sentence.
Judge Mathews also ordered the drugs found at Golding's home be destroyed and the two phones forfeited.