A CARLISLE man has been sentenced for the illegal possession of a knife and a wrap of cocaine which were both found in his van when it was stopped by police.
The city’s crown court heard officers had originally been made aware of an incident which was said to have occurred in the Bank Street area of central Carlisle in the afternoon of February 25. As a result, they stopped Graeme Joe Armstrong, 31, who was driving a Transit van in the local area.
A folding knife was seized from a driver’s door compartment and a wrap of cocaine was located in a wallet on the dash board. Armstrong later told police he used the knife when hunting rabbits. “He also said that when getting in his van with his son he noticed the wrap and put it in his wallet to dispose of, but had forgotten about it,” prosecutor Jane Dagnall told the court.
Armstrong, of Stonegarth in the Morton area of Carlisle, later admitted criminal charges of having a bladed article and cocaine possession.
He was sentenced today (THURS) when his barrister said the knife was also used by the defendant through his work as a landscaper and paver. However, the Covid pandemic and serious health matters from which Armstrong continued to suffer had put an end to a business he’d built up over the last five years.
Judge Nicholas Barker imposed an 18-month community order with a three-month night-time curfew, and ordered the forfeiture and destruction of the knife and cocaine.
