A TEENAGER recruited by “county lines” crooks to help peddle class A drugs to Carlisle addicts has been jailed by a judge who stressed his sentence should act a stark message to others.
Callum Philip Ormond was sent to custody on his 19th birthday today (TUES) for offending which was uncovered by police who attended West Walls close to the city centre on August 20 last year.
Officers saw Ormond and a 16-year-old also from the Merseyside area as they acted upon intelligence surrounding a prominent county lines drugs supply operation. This was being run through a central phone line which delivered “text bombs” to users and advertised heroin and cocaine for sale.
Noting that Ormond – then aged 17 – and the youth were acting suspiciously, the police approached and searched the pair. Although not in possession of any drugs himself, Ormond was found with a mobile phone on which, it emerged, he was receiving directions from higher up the criminal chain which told him to go to certain parts of Carlisle to sell crack cocaine and heroin.
Ormond admitted possessing both class a drugs with intent to supply, having become involved in the illegal enterprise, the court heard, because he had no money at the time.
Judge Andrew Jefferies QC was urged to suspend the jail term on account of the teen’s tender age at the time of his crime, his complete lack of offending since and the fact he now had legitimate work.
But, imprisoning Ormond, of Hogarth Drive, Prenton, Wirral, for 16 months, Judge Jefferies said: “The message has to go out to those who have been recruited that if they go on a jolly to Carlisle to sell drugs will not be treated leniently because of their personal circumstances, and will be punished.
“That aspect of deterrence is being imprisoned.”
