A Class A drug dealer has been told to get an honest job after coming “within a hair’s breadth” of being jailed. Michael Joseph made £100-a-day in his role, while thousands of pounds worth of illicit material linked to him was found during a police raid.
Joseph, who was 18 at the time, had been caught during a police raid at a flat near De Montfort University in January 2023. The Deacon Street property was searched with officers from Leicestershire Police finding about £8,500 worth of crack and heroin, along with scales, bags and a phone with evidence of several months of drug dealing.
After being arrested, he pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of Class A drugs with intent to supply and a further two counts of supplying Class A drugs. Appearing for sentencing at Leicester Crown Court on Tuesday (January 14), his barrister claimed that despite Joseph’s crimes he had made a positive contribution to society in the past, volunteering with a youth project and a food bank.
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Lynsey Knott, representing Joseph, told the court: “He was 18 at the time and in the interim period he’s kept his head down and is actively searching for work. He appreciates the seriousness of what he became involved in and the impact that drug dealing has on wider society.”
Judge Rebecca Herbert told Joseph he was clearly from a good family but got involved in drug dealing because he was “too stupid” to know better. She said: “Class A drugs are a complete blight on society. People who use them and their loved ones have their lives destroyed. People become addicted and commit a large quantity of crimes and the cost to society is immense.
“Young men like you appear before me on a weekly basis having got themselves involved. Young men like you are easily persuaded by the trappings of what would appear to be wealth by those higher up the chain. They’re driving BMWs and wearing gold jewellery and expensive trainers. They convince you that you will get far more cash than with a job that pays minimum wage or not much more.”
Sentencing took place at Leicester Crown Court
(Image: PA Archive/PA Images)
She said that while dealing seemed “like easy money”, she said it was not. “Sooner or later the people like you end up in court and invariably go to prison. They’re sentences aren’t measured in months but in years,” she continued.
“The people who get rich employing people like you who promise the easy money aren’t here to pay the price and they never will be. It’s people like you who go off to custody and spend month after month in a cell. It’s a horrible place to be.”
She urged Joseph, of Windley Road on Leicester’s Saffron Road Estate, to find honest work. Judge Herbert said: “It’s not easy to work hard and make an honest living but you’ve got to do it. It’s your life you’re ruining by not doing it.”
Joseph was handed an 18-month sentence, suspended for 18 months. He will also have to do 250 hours of unpaid work and spend 30 days on Probation Service programmes.
Judge Herbert told him: “You’ve come within a hair’s breadth of an immediate custodial sentence. I hope I’ve frightened you – I’ve meant to.”
Joseph thanked the judge as he left the dock.