Drug dealer jailed after being caught in Scarborough flat surrounded by heroin and crack cocaine

Andrew Morton, 29, was arrested after police acted on a tip-off about a suspected drug-dealing “trap house” that had come into use while the occupant was in prison.

Prosecutor Oliver Norman said officers swooped on a block of flats in Northstead in early November and found Morton inside one of the flats, laid out on a settee.

He immediately told officers that it wasn’t his flat.

There was a rucksack next to the sofa in which police found a stash or drugs and £100 cash.

There were 62 wraps of cocaine worth about £1,720 and 110 wraps of heroin worth an estimated £2,340.

There was a further 3.5g of cocaine found in the finger of a latex glove.

Mr Norman said the whole drug bundle weighed about 30g and was worth about £4,000.

Officers also found digital weighing scales and two mobile phones.

He alleged that Morton had recruited a teenage boy to help him distribute the drugs.

Morton, of Harlech Road, Leeds, was charged with two counts of possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply and admitted the offences.

He appeared for sentence via video link today after being remanded in custody.

The court heard he had 12 previous convictions including one in August for supplying Class B drugs.

He received a short prison sentence for that offence and was on prison licence when he was caught with the Class A drugs stash in Scarborough.

Mr Oliver said Morton was selling directly to users in Scarborough and had used a teenage boy and others to help him.

Defence barrister Leila Taleb said that according to Morton he had not recruited the teenager and there was “no evidence he was directing him” and others in the drug chain.

She said the flat in Scarborough didn’t belong to Morton and claimed the value of the drugs had only half the value as that put forward by the prosecution.

Judge Sean Morris, the Recorder of York, said he was prepared to give Morton “the benefit of the doubt” regarding the alleged recruiting of the youth.

He told Morton: “You are back before the courts for dealing in drugs (and) this time you moved up to Class A drugs.”

Morton will serve half of the three-year jail sentence behind bars before being released on prison licence.

Detective Constable Darrel Temple, of North Yorkshire Police’s drug-busting Operation Expedite Team, said after the sentence: “We have eyes and ears everywhere, and it is only a matter of time before drug dealers like Andrew Morton come to our attention and are brought to justice.

“This case again shows the vital importance of passing information about suspected drug-related crime to the police or anonymously via Crimestoppers.”