BRADFORD: A street drug dealer has been jailed for three years and four months after his accomplice was caught with 60 wraps of crack cocaine stuffed down her bra. The police seized £562 on cash from him when he was arrested.
Mohammed Yaqub and his former partner Lauren Overend were spotted trafficking the Class A drugs from a Toyota Corolla in Hirst Wood, on the edge of Saltaire, Bradford Crown Court heard on Monday (3rd May), the Asian Image has reported.
Yaqub, 31, of Prospect Terrace, Allerton, Bradford, and Overend, 26, of Crawford Street, East Bowling, Bradford, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply crack cocaine on June 27 last year.
Overend, the mother of young children, was spared an immediate prison sentence. Prosecutor Camille Morland said that Yaqub and Overend were in a relationship. Yaqub was spotted by plain clothes police officers at the wheel of the car near to where two drug users were loitering, one of them checking his phone.
An officer later noticed one of the addicts getting out of the vehicle. When it was stopped, Overend was found to have 60 wraps of crack cocaine worth £900 hidden in her bra, Miss Morland said. Overend told the police she was storing the drugs for Yaqub.
Yaqub had nine previous convictions for 15 offences, including robbery, making off without payment, public order offences and possession of cannabis.
Yaqub’s barrister, John Bottomley, said he pleaded guilty on the day of his trial. He had been on bail awaiting sentence for almost a year without committing any further offences. He was a drug user at the time but was now free from illegal substances and had turned his life around. Yaqub cared for his unwell brother and supported his elderly parents.
Patrick Palmer, Overend’s barrister, said she was of previous good character. She was brought into the offending by Yaqub and admitted the offence on the basis that she was looking after the drugs for him.
Judge Jonathan Rose said Yaqub was peddling Class A drugs on the streets of Bradford, bringing misery and death. His only mitigation was that he was caring for members of his family.
He was the father of three children but had not thought about them or the community when he was out selling drugs. Yaqub had admitted the offence only last week on the day of his trial although he must have known he was guilty.
Judge Rose sentenced Overend to 12 months imprisonment, suspended for two years, with a rehabilitation activity requirement with the probation service and a six month electronically monitored overnight curfew. The judge stressed that she could ignore the curfew only in the event of a medical emergency for one of her children.