It’s Good To Talk. Texting Is Another Matter…

A drug dealer was caught after he unwittingly texted police to demand the return of £1,400 worth of cocaine and heroin he had dumped.

Oh, dear. Guess it’s not just Lee Hurst cursing the development of the mobile phone, then…?

Andrew Law, 23, was being chased by police in Gloucester last August when he threw his jacket containing the drugs and his mobile phone into a residential garden.

The next day he started sending increasingly threatening text messages to his mobile, thinking that the garden’s owner had found it. Infact, the phone was in the hands of the police.

Who presumably had their easiest case clear-up ever…

The first message said: “Who’s got my jacket? I want the stuff back.” Four minutes later there was another message, “If you have got this phone, ring me”, followed by two more: “I want my stuff” and “Listen, we want the stuff from that jacket” they said.

When that didn’t get the desired response, he plainly felt free to up the level of threats:

Law’s increasing anxiety at the lack of response showed in the next flurry of messages: “Listen, I want those f***ing drugs. I know which f****ng garden it was in so f***ing answer the phone”; “I will burn your house down. Do you know who I am? Just answer the phone and we will do the deal”; and “Why won’t you answer the phone? The chances are you don’t know what you’ve got. You can make some money if you get in touch. Otherwise you’ll get f*** all apart from a gun in your mouth.”

Mr Ryder said: “Little did he know that the police had got hold of the phone and they saw the texts, made the link to who he was and went and arrested him.

Job done, you’d think.

Err, no:

Law’s arrest did not deter him. When he was freed on bail he started dealing drugs again. He was caught this time by CCTV cameras at Gloucester police station.

Law was jailed for six years after he admitted five offences of possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply and four of supplying drugs.

And the threats to kill….? They did charge him with those, didn’t they?

Because as TDK points out (in the comments here), a man fed up with a drug dealers’ antics was given two months for breaking into his house in a court in Scotland. The sheriff made particular note of his threat to kill the man.

So this should have been worth some extra time behind bars...

Judge Martin Picton told Law: “You deal Class A drugs. You persist in doing it. These offences are aggravated by the fact you had been released on licence from a 42 months sentence and you were dealing again.

“You got caught, bailed and recalled to prison and then released - and you started dealing again.”

Law had ticked every box when it came to aggravating features and there had to be a lengthy sentence to reflect his persistent offending, the judge said.

Not the sort of lengthy sentence I was hoping for….