Window cleaner is jailed in drugs case

Joseph Carter, 20, was questioned by police as he was leaving his flat in St Patrick’s Road, St Annes, and admitted he had drugs in his trousers.

But he also told officers he had further packages of heroin and crack secreted about his body during the raid on May 13.

Officers searched Carter and his flat and discovered heroin with a street value of £650, crack valued at £220 and £413 in cash.

Analysis of his mobile phone also revealed text messages which suggested he had been dealing drugs.

Preston Crown Court heard Carter had been working as a window cleaner but had lost his job when he was convicted of an assault at Blackpool Magistrates Court last year.

Unable to pay his debts, bailiffs visited his family home and told his mother they would seize items to pay the debt if it was not cleared.

In a bid to pay back the money quickly, Carter accepted an offer to sell heroin and crack.

Judge Pamela Badley, sentencing, said: “It must be very distressing for your family and I know from what I have read and what I have heard about you that this is the worst period of your life so far.

“You have got yourself into a mess, but I want to stress that at the age of 20 you can get yourself out of that mess.

“But I am sorry to say that I have no alternative but to send you to custody.

“You had two different types of class A drugs – heroin and crack, and they were in fairly large amounts.

“I know what the magistrates were trying to do by keeping you in the community to buck your ideas up.

“It is terrible it has led to this downward spiral.”

She jailed Carter for 32 months for possession of class A drugs with intent to supply and two months to run consecutively for breaching the suspended sentence handed down by the magistrates.