Drug dealer jailed after selling cannabis on probation

A Newport drug dealer was back to his old tricks just weeks after avoiding jail, selling cannabis while attending probation appointments for a previous drugs offence. 📱⚖️

Luke Brown, 22, from Oliphant Circle, was caught red-handed in May when police raided his family home and discovered just over half a kilo of cannabis in a rucksack in his garden, plus smaller amounts in his bedroom. The haul had a street value of between £3,270 and £4,390.

Officers also found a mobile phone containing “text bombs” offering cannabis for sale.

In March, Brown had been given a 24-month suspended sentence for supplying cocaine and cannabis in Newport. Prosecutor Kirsten Murphy told Cardiff Crown Court that Brown had “an operational or management function in the chain and was directing others”.

Defence barrister Martha Smith-Higgins said her client had been addicted to cannabis since he was 13 and was the registered carer for his brother. She revealed Brown was diagnosed with blood cancer as a child and lost his father at a young age.

“He has the support of his family who are in court and they are understandably concerned about him,” she told the court. “I would ask the court to take into account the defendant’s young age and lack of maturity.”

However, Recorder Claire Pickthall was unimpressed, telling Brown: “You were directing others in the dealing of drugs. Your criminal behaviour has had an impact on your family – but that was your choice. You had an operational or management role in the chain and there was the expectation of significant financial reward.”

She dismissed his previous expressions of remorse as “empty words”, adding: “While you were attending probation appointments, you were dealing drugs.”

Brown was jailed for 32 months and is due to face a proceeds of crime hearing in the new year.