A BEVERLEY drug addict has been stripped of his cannabis, scales and given a 12-month suspended prison sentence after being caught dealing for the sixth time.
Addict Jason Bemrose, 32, is £8,000 in debt and will have to pay just £156 towards the cost of an £1,800 Crown Court trial after maintaining his innocence – until a jury found him guilty.
Hull Crown Court heard his punishment was restricted becaus
e he could not carry out community work as his own addiction had made a back problem worse. He now survives on the state’s disability living allowance.
Recorder Catherine Otton-Goulder, QC, admitted: “I don’t feel happy that he cannot make reparation in the community because of a neck injury which he has contributed to as a result of drug addiction. He fought a trial. It is not right he should have a free reign at sentence. He should pay towards the cost of the trial.”
Bemrose of Wickwane Road, Beverley, was convicted of possession of cannabis with intent to supply in a two-day trial in February. He was arrested making a cannabis street exchange with a dealer list in his pocket in Goodfell Road on August 15 by an off duty police officer.
When he was searched police found cannabis and scales at his home. When asked to explain he twice remained silent in police interview. The court heard he admitted being a drug user and had given up heroin after 14 years, but now used cannabis.
He had four convictions for supplying heroin between September and October 1998 and one of supplying amphetamine. He also had convictions for possession of drugs in 2004 and 2006.
Defending barrister Charlotte Baines said any penalty on Bemrose would impact on his family as he was £8,000 in debt already. He had an eight-year-old son by his current partner who had a 13-year-old child, and he acted as carer for them. She urged the judge not to jail him, but not make any fine too large as to be impossible for him to pay.
Recorder Otton-Goulder, QC, told Bemrose: “These are very serious matters. You should not be supplying drugs at all. In my opinion neither a fine, nor a non-custodial sentence, would meet the needs of justice. I am going to impose a sentence of imprisonment, but I am going to suspend it for two years.”
She also ordered him to attend a six-month drug rehabilitation programme, pay £156 towards costs and forfeit the drugs and scales.
The full article contains 433 words and appears in Beverley Guardian newspaper.
