Police hunting a burglar chanced on a drug dealer (From Worcester News)

Police hunting a burglar chanced on a drug dealer

9:30am Monday 24th September 2012 in News

Police hunting a burglar came across a drug dealer who tried to hide a Thermos flask full of high grade cocaine in a Worcester pub car park.

Syed Alom was spotted acting suspiciously in the car park of the Barn Owl pub in Berkeley Way, Warndon, by a police patrol looking for a suspect.

Timothy Sapwell, prosecuting, told Worcester Crown Court Alom was standing next to the car and appeared to be hiding a metal object in undergrowth when he was seen on the afternoon of May 23 this year.

The officers approached him and found a silver Thermos flask containing powder. After a search of Alom and his car, they also found separate wraps of the drugs intended for sale and £675 in cash. A search of his home in Eddy Road, Kidderminster, revealed £7,000 in cash hidden in a carrier bag on a first-floor outside windowledge.

The street value of the drugs was potentially more than £70,000, Mr Sapwell said. It was mostly of a very high purity between 75 and 80 per cent and would have been cut to the purity of about 20 per cent to maximise its worth.

Alom pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to three charges of possessing a class A drug with intent to supply with the total amount of nearly half a kilogram. Some of it was already divided into wraps for sale at £25 each.

Mr Sapwell said Alom, aged 24, was in breach of a 12 month suspended sentence imposed for fraud.

Masser Gulraiz, defending, said Alom had been working as a security officer but had got involved with people who sold and used drugs. He became addicted to cocaine and was prepared to do anything to feed his habit.

Once he started to make money, there was a commercial element to his dealing. He had let down his former partner, his young child and the rest of his family, Mr Gulraiz said.

Recorder Nicolas Cartwright said it was a sizeable quantity of drugs with a very high street value. He jailed Alom for four-and-a-half years concurrently on each of the three charges with six months concurrent for breaching the suspended sentence, making a total of four-and-a-half years. He has spent 119 days in custody which will be deducted from the sentence.