A 24-YEAR-OLD drug dealer will spend more time in jail as it has emerged he continued his criminal ways despite being arrested by police. 

Joshua Jones was jailed last year after police found ecstasy, cannabis and cocaine worth more than £30,000 at his home in Ramsdale Close, Malvern. 

Jones appeared on videolink from prison to Worcester Crown Court on Tuesday (August 8) to be sentenced for his latest offences. 

Aimee Parkes, prosecuting, explained Jones was arrested in the spring of 2021 for the offences he was later jailed for but, despite being released under investigation by police, he did not stop. 

At 7.35am on April 24 last year, police returned to his home and after not being let in they carried out a drug warrant and found his bedroom door heavily locked. 

Worcester News: JAILED: Joshua JonesJAILED: Joshua Jones (Image: West Mercia Police)

Inside the room were 39 grams of cocaine, with a street value of more than £3,000, and 58 grams of cannabis as well as drug paraphernalia and a Nokia telephone. 

Police analysed the phone which revealed messages from drug users asking for "sniff", a common term used to describe cocaine. 

Miss Parkes said an aggravating features of the case was that Jones was arrested on April 10, 2021, but despite that he continued to have a significant role in the drug dealing operation. 

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She added another aggravating feature was Jones' three convictions for nine offences, four of which being drug-related. 

Lee Egan, defending, said after the drugs were seized those involved in the operation put pressure on Jones' family members to pay them back. 

"He found himself in a difficult position," Mr Egan told the court. 

"He is relatively young."

Worcester News: COURT: Worcester Crown CourtCOURT: Worcester Crown Court (Image: Newsquest)

The barrister added that had the case come before Judge Martin Jackson when he jailed him for 44 months last November, he would have considered totality and come to a sentence that reflected all of Jones' offending behaviour.

Sentencing Jones for possession with intent to supply cocaine and cannabis and acquire/use/possess criminal property Judge Nicholas Cartwright said he would put himself in the position of Judge Jackson last year. 

The judge told Jones he had "carried on" the illegal activity for financial advantage even though he had been under police investigation. 

The judge gave Jones an additional 22 months added to the sentence he is already serving in prison.