‘There's a load of drugs in the back of the car’ – Sutton dealer told cops

Alistair Cantrill was stopped by police in Huthwaite after an episode of dangerous driving, just after midnight, on August 28, 2019, said prosecutor Stuart Pattinson.

Officers found two wraps of cocaine on him, and a plastic bag, containing cannabis, 95 MDMA tablets, and more cocaine, was found in his car.

A search of his bedroom revealed further quantities of the class A and B drugs, along with empty deal bags, "luxury trainers," and £1,330 in cash.

Mobile phone messages indicated he had been dealing for around two months.

The court heard Cantrill, aged 23, has seven previous convictions, including dealing cannabis in 2017. He received an eight month sentence, suspended for 18 months, for dangerous driving, at a previous hearing.

Digby Johnson, mitigating, said that aside from owning "posh trainers," Cantrill had not really profited from the dealing and “was living in one room in his mother's house.”

“It is a crying shame” he said. “He was involved in selling and using cannabis. He was easy prey for someone to establish a debt and then to force that debt to get him to run around.”

He said Cantrill has been waiting to be sentenced “for more than ten per cent of his life.”

“He has completely moved away from the group he was with,” Mr Johnson said. “He seems to be on a completely different course.”

Cantrill, of Huthwaite Road, Sutton, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply cocaine, cannabis and MDMA, on September 14, last year.

Recorder Michael Auty QC told him: “It gives me no pleasure to pass the sentence on you I must. There is a huge tension in this case.

"On one hand you are a young man of 23 and you have done a very great deal to put all this behind you, and I shall acknowledge that.

“But to be caught with more than 100 grams of cocaine – which is one of the most pernicious class A drugs there is – is something the court cannot overlook.”

On Thursday, Cantrill received “the very least sentence” the judge could impose of three years in prison.

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