Addict jailed for drug-dealing

AN Ipswich drug addict is beginning a two-year jail term today after admitting peddling heroin and cocaine in the town.

Patrick Lester, of Nene Drive, also pleaded guilty to possessing a wrap of heroin seven days before he was arrested for intending to sell Class A drugs.

Prosecutor Hugh Vass told Ipswich Crown Court the 26-year-old's second arrest came on February 17 this year when police detained another man, Wayne Allen, in a taxi in Star Lane.

Officers carried out a search for drugs and also arrested Lester who was sharing the taxi with Allen.

After Lester was taken into custody police analysed his mobile phone and found a significant number of text messages relating to the supply of drugs.

When interviewed by officers he told them he had also been arrested on February 10 after being seen in an alleyway between Plover Road and Turner Road in Ipswich.

On that occasion he was in possession of a wrap of diamorphine worth �15.

The court heard Lester had been a heroin user for around one-and-a-half years before graduating on to crack cocaine shortly before his arrests.

On the day he was caught in the taxi, he told police he was working for Ian and Max, who ran a Class A drug dealing business in the town.

Lester had been on his way to the Ravenswood estate to get money from his grandmother that would enable him to pay off a debt to Ian and Max.

He claimed he was going to deal drugs that day for the last time. Lester said he had only been selling drugs Ian and Max for a couple of weeks - on at least two of those occasions in the Chantry area of the town.

Mr Vass said Lester's drug-peddling associate, Allen, has been given a four-year prison sentence at an earlier hearing.

Jude Durr, mitigating, told the court his client was in the grip of a serious drug addiction, but did not sell the Class A substances in return for cash. His reward was two or three bags for his own habit.

However, Judge David Goodin sentenced Lester to two years in prison.