Mansfield drug dealer jailed after being caught with cocaine, LSD and cannabis
A young Mansfield man who sold class A, B and C drugs for five weeks before the police swooped on him, has been jailed.
Ethan Lewis was found with cannabis, 15 LSD tabs, 77 Bromazolam tablets, and three-and-a-half grammes of cocaine, when he was arrested at an address on Yew Tree Avenue, Forest Town, on February 29, 2022.
Prosecutor Rebecca Coleman said messages on his phone related to dealing that stretched back to January 23, and he was found with £130 in cash.
Lewis told police he didn’t have a job but bought and sold things on Facebook Marketplace before accepting the drugs belonged to him.
Nottingham Crown Court heard he also has convictions for criminal damage, in November 2022, and possession of a blade, in August 2023.
Graham Heathcote, mitigating, said Lewis’s dealing began two or three months after he turned 18 and he first came to the police’s attention because of a domestic incident.
He said there were only 15 messages for cannabis sales and a single wholesale marketing message for cocaine.
The potential prices and the quantities of drugs were low, he said, adding this was ‘street dealing at a very low level’.
At the time Lewis’s drinking was ‘out of control’ and he saw dealing ‘as a means to support his drinking rather then any drug consumption’.
Mr Heathcote said the 30-month delay was not Lewis’s fault and ‘he had the good sense’ to enter a guilty plea when he appeared at Nottingham Crown Court.
Lewis, now 20, of Sixth Avenue, Forest Town, admitted possession, supplying and offering to supply class A, B and C drugs.
On August 6, Judge John Sampson said the case had already been adjourned for pre-sentence reports but Lewis failed to engage with the probation service and an application to adjourn for a third chance was refused.
He said: “Class A drugs cause crime, blight lives and destroy communities and you were peddling in this misery in Mansfield. You had a range of drugs for retail.”
Even taking Lewis’s age at the time of the offences into account the judge was unable to reduce the sentence to the point it could be suspended, and a 27-month sentence was imposed.