A 22-year-old ‘middle-man’ in a big drugs deal was

A 22-year-old ‘middle-man’ in a big drugs deal was jailed
for two years on Friday.

Cops swooped by chance on Mark Gutteridge and found him
carrying a bag of amphetamine sulphate with a street value
of some pnds stlg 144,000.

Gutteridge was to get only pnds stlg 600 for his involvement in
the deal as a courier, Snaresbrook Crown Court was told.

Jobless Gutteridge, of Bowman Avenue, Canning Town, admitted
possession of just over 12 kilogrammes of the class B drug with intent
to supply.

Jailing him for two years Judge Robert Southan said: ‘Although
you did not negotiate the deal, you were helping in the physical
transfer of the drugs to someone else.

‘You were happy to get the sum of pnds stlg 600 out of it for
your activity.

‘I have to punish you for what you did and bear in mind the
public interest in the case, in knowing what happens to people who act
in the way you did.

‘
The court heard how on January 8 this year undercover police
officers mounted a surveillance operation in the Plaistow area,
knowing that a deal was likely to take place.

They stopped Gutteridge in Balaam Street and found him with the
drugs, said Mr Steven Mejzner, prosecuting.

He confessed to his involvement in the deal after his arrest but
refused to give police any names.

Mr Ian Copeman, defending, described Gutteridge as a ‘courier’
and a ‘middle-man.

‘
Counsel explained that an ‘acquaintance’ had offered him pnds stlg
600 for a few hours work.

‘He was too terrified to have named that man.

He was in one sense
a young man who became a sitting duck for use by others.

‘
Mr Copeman said that Gutteridge was not targeted by police and
it was a ‘coincidence’ that he was stopped and found with the valuable
haul of ‘speed’ – a party drug often used by youngsters to stay up all
night.

Gutteridge had no previous convictions involving drugs.

ENDS