A YOUNG Carlisle man who travelled with friends to an out-of-county dance music festival intent on selling class A drugs to others has been spared immediate prison.
After initially trying to flee security staff at Beat-Herder – an annual event near Clitheroe in Lancashire which attracts 12,000 people – 24-year-old Danny Green was found with a bum-bag containing “pills, powder and cannabis”, along with more than £100 cash, Carlisle Crown Court was told. His illegal haul included cocaine and ecstasy with street values totalling more than £1,000 along with small amounts of cannabis and Valium.
Green made no comment when quizzed but later admitted possessing the class A, B and C drugs with intent to supply.
Jeff Smith, defending, said Green had held the illegal stash for a group of pals in which he was a younger member, and had taken drugs himself at the event. But he had since “shown himself capable of rehabilitation” and, said Mr Smith, was now a “significantly different young man”.
Judge David Potter heard Green cared for his disabled father and acknowledged the “significant” court case time delay which meant the matter had been hanging over his head for more than two years. As a result, he took the “wholly exceptional course” of suspending a 24-month jail term for two years, and ordered Green, of Peel Street, Carlisle, to complete 200 hours’ unpaid work.
“You had attended that dance festival to sell these drugs for profit with your friends,” concluded Judge Potter, who added of the intervening period: “I am satisfied you have done everything possible to assist yourself such that I am sure you are a low risk of re-conviction, and a different person to the idiot who was prepared to try and sell drugs at a music festival.”
