Dealer from wealthy Hampstead family was caught with 30k of coke in his mum’s Prius

A drug dealer who supplied top quality cocaine to Hampstead’s bankers and city professionals was caught with £30,000 of the drug in his mother’s Toyota Prius.

Zachary Brine-Elliott’s wealthy family sobbed in court as they heard the
37-year-old was stopped by in King Henry’s Road, in Hampstead, northwest London, on 1 August.

When the officers searched the car, registered to his mother’s name, they found a carrier bag containing a block of compressed cocaine.

Blackfriars Crown Court heard today that the 492 gram package had a purity of 89 per cent.

Prosecutor Mark Eldridge said: ‘On the 1 August this year, officers were on duty in plain clothes and had reason, at about 1:30 in the afternoon, to stop a grey Toyata Prius driven by the defendant, who was driving from King Henry Road, right above Regent’s Park, to the car park of the Marriott hotel.

‘Two police cars then parked in front of the vehicle to prevent it from driving off.’

After handcuffing Brine-Elliott, police told him his car would be searched for drugs.

‘A large quantity of white power in a Tesco bag was found on the passenger’s side.

‘The officer who found it thought it was about a half kilo and it was described as tightly compressed,’ said Mr Eldridge.

The officers also found several Nokia phones, a pair of scales, self-sealing bags and a white powder that Brine-Elliott claimed was ketamine.

‘The Crown’s view is that the white powder was in in fact a cutting agent,’ said the prosecutor.

An analysis showed that the phones contained text messages arranging drug deals, the court heard.

The judge, Mr Recorder Adrian Chaplin told Brine-Elliott: ‘I have read letters from your mother and brother who are attending today and have no hesitation in observing that you have the support of your family.

‘An awful lot of people who appear in this court do not.

‘But the extent to which that is a mitigation as opposed to your good fortune is perhaps of some doubt.’

‘You, with the support you have from your family, you with important qualifications, with your own challenged may or may not be aware the devastation class A drugs such cocaine devastate communities,’ said Mr Chaplin.

‘You may only sell to decadent professionals, but those involved in the supply of class A drugs exploit communities who do not have the cushioning from their material circumstances.’

Brine-Elliott, in the dock in a smart dark suit and purple tie bowed his head at the judge’s remarks while his family wept in the public gallery.

Oliver Renton, defending, told the court that Brine-Elliott had studied to be a product designer and had his own companies in the past

But after acting as a carer for his father, who passed away last year, he moved from recreational drug use into frequent use.

‘The fact is that after his father passed his usage of cocaine increased to the extent it was nearly daily.

‘He was in the position where he wasn’t getting enough income to meet the requirements of his habit.

‘It was at that point he, very stupidly by his own admission, agreed to run a drugs line,’ said Mr Renton.

‘None of the mobile phone messages give any sense this is somebody who habitually bought quantities of drugs like the one he was arrested with.

‘When one works for a drugs line involving people above them in the command chain, a request such as this to move a quantity of drugs is hard to say no to.’

Pointing to his client’s mother and half-brother in the public gallery, Mr Renton said: ‘It is a loving family who will support him on his release from prison.

‘The person I saw in the cells earlier is not the type of person that usually commits these offences.’

Brine-Elliott, of Loudon Road, south Hamstead, west London, admitted on count of possession with intent to supply cocaine.

He was jailed for four years.
ENDS