Party animal carried drugs

SELF confessed "party animal" Vincent Blake has been ordered to carry out unpaid work in the community after being caught with 41 ecstasy tablets on him.

Jobless Blake, of Iris Close, Ipswich, admitted possessing a quantity of cannabis and also the 41 MDMA tablets – a class A drug otherwise known as ecstasy.

The court heard when interviewed by police the 37-year-old explained he bought a bag of 50 tablets for £50 because he was expecting to be "out all weekend partying."

Patricia Doggett, prosecuting said when officers approached Blake at the junction of Kings Street and Elm Street in Ipswich at 11.45 pm on September 12, he ran away.

He was chased by the officers and when they caught up with him Blake dropped something white from his hand and threw a bag clear bag over his head.

The officers got hold of him and Blake stopped running. The bag was retrieved, along with some white tablets.

Blake was searched and found to be in possession of cannabis resin, a clear bag of herbal substance and a white bag, containing herbal substance. He also had a cannabis crusher in his pocket.

In interview Blake said he bought the tablets earlier in the evening. Some of the bag's contents spilled out onto the floor and he was about to put the tablets back in, when the police arrived.

He told police he had also paid for a small quantity each of cannabis resin, marijuana and skunk weed.

Charles Riddleston, mitigating, said: "He had been doing casual work in the run up to this and had the means to buy it.

"If you buy in bulk it is cheaper.

"Like most things the more you buy the cheaper, it is so he took advantage of the offer.

"He told me he is a party animal. He was going out all weekend and that is something from time to time he does."

He said Blake bought the pills for his own use, although the tablets were not just for the one weekend.

Bench chairman Peter Page sitting at South East Suffolk Magistrates' Court in Ipswich also ordered Blake to pay £50 towards prosecution costs.