A Carlisle drug addict who became involved in a heroin supply enterprise after racking up a large debt has been given a lengthy jail term.
Police watched as 35-year-old Malcolm John Nicholson left his Hawick Street home in the city on the afternoon of 27th November, and formed the view he was behaving suspiciously.
Nicholson was stopped, searched and found to be in possession of two separate one-ounce bags of heroin worth £2,800 if sold on the street.
When officers visited his address, they recovered a further five-and-a-half ounces of the class A drug in individual bags – potentially worth £7,700.
Carlisle Crown Court was told today of Nicholson’s long-standing drug dependency, that he had accrued a significant debt and was “prevailed upon” to take what his barrister said was a “slightly unusual” heroin supply role.
This would involve passing on amounts of the illicit substance to be dealt by others.
Nicholson admitted possessing heroin with intent to supply. He had almost 70 previous offences on his record, the court heard, and received a jail term in late 2018 for the possession of the same drug and also cocaine with intent to supply.
Imposing a 32-month prison sentence for the latest offending, Recorder Neville Biddle told him: “You have a lengthy record reflecting your drug abuse over many years which you recognise, and I hope it is time for you to address that and stop abusing drugs.”
