Yahoo News Man jailed after security officer spotted him at shopping centre
A drug dealer was caught peddling cocaine and heroin in a shopping centre. Joshua Jones, 20, was discovered on CCTV with snap bags of the class A drugs at Harpurhey shopping centre.
When police confronted him, Jones warned officers that he had a knife and he would ‘use it if he had to’. But Manchester Crown Court heard he was apprehended and has now been locked up.
His barrister appealed for the judge to have mercy on him as he was ‘terrified’ of going to prison.
Prosecuting, Olivia Brooksbank-Laing said a police officer was in the shopping centre’s CCTV office on an unrelated matter. A security officer watching camera footage spotted Jones and identified him to police.
The officer then called in for reinforcements and approached Jones. After releasing that the police were onto him, Jones shouted out to a man nearby and told him to call two men.
He told police that he had a knife for ‘self-protection’ and would ‘use it if he had to’. Jones was arrested and found to be in possession of 67 snap bags of cocaine - 22 snap bags of heroin. A small amount of cannabis was also recovered. He answered 'no comment' to the police’s questions during an interview.
“Shopping centres are areas where families and young persons attend and frequent,” said the judge, District Judge Jones. “As a young man, you would know your target audience.
“It has an impact on the Harpurhey community, which is like so many other communities blighted by those who sell drugs.” Defending, Niamh McGinty said that Jones had experienced a ‘turbulent start to life’, and was fostered after his father was sent to prison and mother ‘struggled to cope’.
She said that aged 18 he had to find accommodation of his own, and spent a year in a hostel before eventually finding a property. Ms McGinty said he had been surrounded by negative influences and drug addicts.
Jones also became a victim of knife crime during a ‘terrifying’ incident where he was stabbed, and continues to struggle to sleep and suffers flashbacks. Ms McGinty added: “He is terrified of spending more time and going back to HMP Forest Bank.” She accepted her plea for Jones to avoid jail was ‘bold’ but argued he needed rehabilitative support.
But the judge said Jones’ offending was too serious for anything other than a prison sentence. Jones, of Sanderson Street, Monsall, was sentenced to three years and four months in prison after pleading guilty to possessing cocaine with intent to supply; possession of heroin with intent to supply; possession of a knife or bladed article; and two counts of possessing cannabis.
