A soft judge freed a drug dealer, caught with a pn

A soft judge freed a drug dealer, caught with a pnds stlg 77,000 DHL consignment of cocaine, after saying
jail would serve no useful purpose today.

(fri)

Judge Nicholas Medawar QC told 20-year-old Scott Wootton an ‘exceptional course’ of action was called for after hearing he was of low intelligence.

The judge said he did not suppose ‘for one moment’ that Wootton knew what was in the parcel.

The international courier company became suspicious after delivering a suspect package to Wootton in Camden, north London, and alerted police.

Officers intercepted a second package and found it contained 979 grammes of cocaine, Snaresbrook Crown Court heard.

Mr Nigel Daniel, prosecuting, said after intercepting the package police sent a dummy parcel addressed to the defendant.

‘He signed for the package and was then arrested.

‘During his interview he said he had been visited by two men who asked him to take delivery of the parcel.

‘He felt intimidated by them because he had bought drugs form one of them and owed money.

‘When the parcel was analysed there were 979 grammes, 412 of which were pure.

‘

Jobless Wootton, who lived in Stanhope Street, Camden, north London, at the time of the delivery in September, had one previous conviction for possession of cannabis resin.

John Fitzgerald, defending, told the court: ‘He is an exceptionally vulnerable young man of extremely limited intelligence.

‘He needs support and is not someone who is a sophisticated criminal hell bent on committing crime.

‘

Giving Wootton a three year community rehabilitation order, Judge Nicholas Medawar QC said: ‘You allowed yourself to be involved on the fringes of a very very serious matter.

‘People who involve themselves with drugs to a value of pnds stlg 77,000 usually go to prison for many years.

‘You have foolishly allowed yourself to act as recipient for parcels, the contents of which I don’t suppose for one moment you knew exactly, even if you suspected they might have drugs in them.

‘An exceptional course of action is called for here as putting you in prison would serve no useful purpose whatsoever.

‘

Wootton, of (201) Old Farm Road, East Finchley, north London, had pleaded guilty to a single charge of being knowingly concerned in the supply of a controlled drug of class A to another.

ends

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