A TEENAGER who made off from an Ipswich taxi without paying was busted for drugs when police caught up with him.

A TEENAGER who made off from an Ipswich taxi without paying was busted for drugs when police caught up with him.

Londoner Aaron Melchor took a cab from Ipswich train station to St John's Road where he left the driver waiting 15 minutes for the �16 far he had no intention of paying.

Ipswich Crown Court heard that the taxi driver telephoned the police and when they tracked down 17-year-old Melchor in a nearby house he had 10 grams of cannabis in his possession along with 15 wraps of heroin and 10 wraps of crack-cocaine with a total street value of �675.

Melchor, who had a string of previous convictions, told police that a man sitting beside him on a sofa had placed the packages of Class A drugs between the cushions and the arm of the chair before leaving the house.

Matthew Edwards, mitigating, said: “He (Melchor) thought it was cocaine so when the police arrived he placed it between his buttocks.”

Melchor told police he had travelled to Ipswich to visit his ex-girlfriend. He said the cannabis was his but he intended to return the Class A drugs.

He pleaded guilty to possessing cannabis, to possessing heroin and crack-cocaine with intent to supply and to making off without payment on November 30 last year.

Mr Edwards said: “He was holding onto those drugs to pass them back to someone else. So this is very low level supply and little more than possession.”

Judge John Devaux said Melchor of Lambeth, London was a persistent young offender and took his anonymity away despite him being under 18.

He sentenced him to a total of 12 months in a Young Offender's Institute.