Heroin dealer 'doesn't get out of bed for less than £100 a day'

A heroin dealer told one of his customers that he wouldn't get out of bed unless he was making more than £100 a day, a court has heard. When police raided Lee Beddows' house they found his stash of foil-wrapped heroin deals hidden under his mattress.

Swansea Crown Court heard Beddows – a former floor fitter who helped to construct the temporary Nightingale hospitals during the Covid pandemic – has previously served a prison sentence for supplying heroin. Sending the defendant back to prison a judge told him that given his history he would have known that an inevitable custodial sentence awaits those caught peddling Class A drugs – and warned him that if he were to return to dealing he could expect a seven-year sentence as a third-strike offender.

Alycia Carpanini, prosecuting, said on the morning of December 16, 2022, police executed a search warrant at the defendant 's house in Swansea. Officers told him why they were there and Beddows said there was "no need to wreck anything" and he offered to show them where the drugs were kept. The court that under the mattress on the defendant's bed officers found 16 foil wraps containing a brown power which turned out to be heroin mixed with caffeine and paracetamol.

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Miss Carpanini said that according to a police drugs expert caffeine and paracetamol were common cutting agents used to bulk out drug deals and that the foil wraps used to package the deals were often used by users to smoke the heroin from. The street value of each 0.2g deal was put at £20. During the search police also recovered weighing scales and a mobile phone with messages relating to the supply of drugs. In one of messages Beddows wrote to a contact "Don't get out of bed unless a £100 day, bro". The prosecutor said it was accepted Beddows had been dealing to a limited number of people. For the latest court reports sign up to our crime newsletter here.

Lee Beddows, aged 52, of Pittsburgh Court. Blaenymaes, Swansea, pleaded guilty to possession of heroin with intent to supply when he appeared in the dock for a plea and sentencing hearing. He has 14 previous convictions for 30 offences "of a varied nature" including perverting the course of justice, motoring matters, dishonesty, criminal damage, and the simple possession of heroin. In 2018 he was sentenced to 30 months in prison for supplying heroin.

Andrew Evans, for Beddows, said the defendant's dealing operation was that of a user-dealer supplying people in a similar position to himself in order to fund his own habit. He said for many years his client worked as a floor fitter – including working on the emergency Nightingale hospitals established during the Covid pandemic – had that work had taken a toll on his body, especially on his knees and back. The advocate said Beddows turned to Class A drugs for pain relief and then began supplying to fund that use but said in the time since his he had tackled his addiction and was now on a methadone script.

Judge Catherine Richards said it was clear Beddows had been a heroin user who was supplying others to fund a habit and said there was no evidence of him making any significant financial gain. However she said the defendant's previous conviction for supplying Class A drugs was a significant aggravating factor and she told him that given his antecedent record he would have known what sentence awaited him when he took the decision to return to dealing. In coming to the appropriate sentence the judge said she would take into account the "inexplicable delay" in the case and the steps the defendant had taken to address his drug use.

With a 20% discount for his guilty plea Beddows was sentenced to 28 months in prison. He will serve up to half that sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community. The judge warned the defendant that were he to be caught dealing in Class A drugs for a third time he would be subject to a mandatory seven-year sentence.

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