Street drug dealer legged it from police with 365 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine

Anwar Miah

Jenny Loweth, T&A Reporter / Friday 9 October 2015 / News

A STREET drug dealer legged it with his stash when a police officer jumped into the back seat of his car.

Anwar Miah, who was carrying 365 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine, attempted to scale a fence to escape the clutches of the law, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Miah, 29, of Upper Rushton Road, Fagley, Bradford, was today sentenced on a video link to Leeds Prison where he was being held in custody on remand.

He pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to possession of heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply it and possession of £115 as criminal property.

He was jailed for two years and four months.

Prosecutor Duncan Ritchie said police officers saw an Audi A3 parked outside a convenience store on Haworth Road, Bradford, on September 3.

Miah came out of the shop and got into the passenger seat next to the driver.

"A police officer then got into the back seat and identified himself. The defendant jumped out and ran off," Mr Richie said.

Miah was caught after a struggle and found to have a large number of wraps of Class A drugs on him.

The court heard that officers seized 176 wraps of crack cocaine, of 93 per cent purity, and 189 wraps of heroin, with a total street value of £2,172.

Two phones and £115 in cash were also found on him.

Miah told the police he was under pressure to sell drugs to pay off a debt to his dealer.

He had been 'paired off' with the driver and provided with the drugs and a phone.

Mr Ritchie said Miah had 12 previous convictions for 29 offences, including several for possession of cannabis with intent to supply it.

In 2011, he was arrested at Edinburgh’s Waverley Railway Station with a bag containing a kilo of cannabis and jailed for 12 months.

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Miah's barrister, Stephen Couch, told the court: "He was under considerable pressure and he is a very unhappy young man."

"He is motivated to change but although the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak."

Mr Couch said Miah accepted that he would be getting a prison sentence and he asked Judge Peter Benson to show as much mercy as possible.

The judge said Miah had been street dealing on a significant scale after accumulating a drug debt.

He accepted his basis of plea that he was under pressure to pay back the money and was playing a lesser role in the operation
.