Soraya Hatim (Image: South Wales Police)
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A drug dealer simply switched to a second phone and continued supplying Class A drugs for months after officers had searched her property and seized her original drugs line, a court has heard.
Soraya Hatim, 46, of Archer Place, Ely, Cardiff, was already subject to both a suspended prison sentence and a community order when she was caught peddling heroin and crack cocaine across the city.
How police uncovered the operation
Cardiff Crown Court heard that Hatim first came to the attention of detectives in October last year after they obtained a production order for the phone of a known drug user.
Prosecutor Zoe Laugharne said the data revealed Hatim had been contacting addicts through two separate drugs lines. On October 29, officers executed a search warrant at her home and seized a mobile phone linked to one of those lines.
An examination of the device uncovered messages relating to drug supply, including references to “dark” – a common street term for heroin.
The second phone
Despite the raid, Hatim was undeterred. Police began searching for her on December 12, and on January 16 this year she was found in a car near Culverhouse Cross.
Officers discovered she had £610 in cash, wraps of heroin and crack cocaine, and another phone – which turned out to be the second drugs line detectives had identified months earlier. She had continued dealing right up to the day of her arrest.
Defence arguments
Ruth Smith, defending, told the court that after a long period of staying clean, Hatim had relapsed into Class A drug use and fallen into debt, leaving her vulnerable to pressure from others to sell drugs.
The court heard Hatim had spent her time on remand productively, undertaking educational courses and working for a fish food company. She had been due to sit an English exam on the day of sentencing.
Previous record and breached orders
Hatim had 33 previous convictions for 88 offences. Her drug dealing put her in breach of a suspended sentence for driving while disqualified and other motoring matters, and also in breach of a community order for assaulting an emergency worker and driving while disqualified.
Sentencing
Judge Christopher Felstead said it was clear Hatim had continued dealing Class A drugs even after the raid on her home while subject to court orders, and that her compliance with those orders had been “poor to non-existent”, including attending none of the mandated rehabilitation days and only one of six required mental health treatment sessions.
He told Hatim: “Even after police raided the home you shared with your wife you decided to continue dealing drugs. When police arrested you in January this year and seized your phone it showed you had continued dealing up to the day of your arrest. Despite your home being raided, it seems to me you simply continued supplying drugs in the community.”
Hatim had previously pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of heroin, being concerned in the supply of crack cocaine, possession of heroin with intent to supply, and possession of crack cocaine with intent to supply.
With a one-third discount for her guilty pleas, she was sentenced to three years in prison. The judge also activated nine weeks of the suspended sentence to run consecutively and imposed one week for the community order breach to run concurrently, making an overall sentence of three years and nine weeks.
She will serve no more than half the sentence in custody before being released on licence.
