Drug dealer caught outside prison with class-B substance
Updated 12:03pm Wednesday 2nd March 2016 in By Court reporter
Swindon Crown Court
A DRUG dealer caught outside a prison with a former legal high has been jailed for three-and-a-half years.
Paul Bruce, 33, was lurking suspiciously near HM Prison Erlestoke when a sharp-eyed member of staff who was passing spotted him and called the police.
When Bruce was stopped and searched he was found to have a quantity of class-B drug methadrone, which it is thought he planned to pass on to inmates.
Then two weeks later, following a tip-off to the police, he was caught peddling more drugs in Swindon town centre.
Ian Fenny, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court that Bruce was first spotted outside the prison on Monday, January 26, last year.
An off-duty worker called the police who were quickly on the scene and they found he had the former legal high on him.
He was on bail when he was then arrested in Aylesbury Street, Swindon, on Saturday, February 7, after police were tipped off about drug dealing near the train station.
Mr Fenny said he was in a different car and found to have not only similar former legal high mephadrone but a knife under the carpet in the vehicle and £500 in cash.
When his home was searched he was found to have more illicit substances as well as the phones inside condoms - a common way of smuggling items into prison.
The court heard he had oxymethalone, testosterone, diazepam, stanolone, methandienone, buprenorphine, methyltestosterone, tamazepam and nitrazepam.
Bruce, formerly of Buttermere, Liden, but now of Kirktonhill Road, Westlea, admitted possessing drugs with intent to supply, simple possession, and having a knife.
Bruce has a long history of crime and had been jailed twice in the past for dealing in class-A drugs as well as numerous convictions for shoplifting.
He got two years in September 2008 after he was caught with heroin stuffed up his backside and shortly after his release he was found with thousands of pounds worth of the drug at his Penhill home, getting a three-year sentence for that.
Robin Shellard, defending, told the court that his client, a long time user of drugs, accepted he was facing a jail term for the latest bout of offending.
Jailing him, Judge Peter Blair QC said: "Your barrister points out to me you are somebody that has been struggling with drug problems for many years.
"You are 33 years old now and have two previous convictions for possessing class-A drugs with intent to supply.
"Your last large sentence was in February 2009 when you got three years imprisonment for that.
"There is no alternative for me than to send you to prison today and you are realistic about that.
"I have take in to account what I have read in the progress report on the drug rehabilitation requirement.
"The value of the drugs seized from you have been conservatively put at £5,000: perhaps relating to street sales enabling you to raise some £7,000 if they were sold at the higher level.
"Your previous convictions show you are somebody who haven't responded to the punishments you had before."
Paul Bruce, 33, was lurking suspiciously near HM Prison Erlestoke when a sharp-eyed member of staff who was passing spotted him and called the police.
When Bruce was stopped and searched he was found to have a quantity of class-B drug methadrone, which it is thought he planned to pass on to inmates.
And officers searching his home not only found the tools of his trade, including a cocktail of further drugs, but also mobile phones inside condoms.
An off-duty worker called the police who were quickly on the scene and they found he had the former legal high on him.
He was on bail when he was then arrested in Aylesbury Street, Swindon, on Saturday, February 7, after police were tipped off about drug dealing near the train station.
Mr Fenny said he was in a different car and found to have not only similar former legal high mephadrone but a knife under the carpet in the vehicle and £500 in cash.
When his home was searched he was found to have more illicit substances as well as the phones inside condoms - a common way of smuggling items into prison.
The court heard he had oxymethalone, testosterone, diazepam, stanolone, methandienone, buprenorphine, methyltestosterone, tamazepam and nitrazepam.
Bruce, formerly of Buttermere, Liden, but now of Kirktonhill Road, Westlea, admitted possessing drugs with intent to supply, simple possession, and having a knife.
Bruce has a long history of crime and had been jailed twice in the past for dealing in class-A drugs as well as numerous convictions for shoplifting.
He got two years in September 2008 after he was caught with heroin stuffed up his backside and shortly after his release he was found with thousands of pounds worth of the drug at his Penhill home, getting a three-year sentence for that.
Robin Shellard, defending, told the court that his client, a long time user of drugs, accepted he was facing a jail term for the latest bout of offending.
Jailing him, Judge Peter Blair QC said: "Your barrister points out to me you are somebody that has been struggling with drug problems for many years.
"You are 33 years old now and have two previous convictions for possessing class-A drugs with intent to supply.
"Your last large sentence was in February 2009 when you got three years imprisonment for that.
"There is no alternative for me than to send you to prison today and you are realistic about that.
"I have take in to account what I have read in the progress report on the drug rehabilitation requirement.
"The value of the drugs seized from you have been conservatively put at £5,000: perhaps relating to street sales enabling you to raise some £7,000 if they were sold at the higher level.
"Your previous convictions show you are somebody who haven't responded to the punishments you had before."
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