Dealer gets to keep freedom - and can get married next month

Police were suspicious that Wayne Ramsey was selling drugs to "homeless people and vagrants" when they saw him on Northumberland Steet in Newcastle last October.

Newcastle Crown Court heard the 50-year-old drove off from the city centre in a Ford Transit van, which was stopped and searched.

Officers found 12 Pregabalin tablets, which is a class C drug, in the driver's door pocket as well as an envelope under a window visor that contained a small amount of herbal cannabis.

When police searched his then home in the city they found two boxes containing a total of 110 Pregabalin tablets in a bedroom cupboard and a small quantity of cannabis bush in a drawer.

They also found 18 Pregabalin capsules in a bed drawer.

Ramsey confessed he had been given the Pregabalin tablets to sell, for £2.50 each, on behalf of someone else, and would make 25p profit on each pill for himself.

Ramsey, of Abbey Drive, Houghton, who has convictions for 122 previous offences, admitted possessing the Pregabalin with intent and possession of the cannabis.

A judge sentenced Ramsey to 12 weeks behind bars, which meant he would have missed his own October wedding, but then suspended the jail term and told him: "I'm willing to give you one more chance".

Kate Barnes, defending, said Ramsey was addicted to Valium at the time and was selling Pregabalin "on behalf of his own dealer".

Miss Barnes said in the last year Ramsey has made significant changes in his life, is now "clean", has two jobs and is settled with a partner who he is due to marry in October.

Mr Recorder Shakil Najib told Ramsey: "You have been clean for some time, you have some mental health issues and you now live with a partner, in a stable relationship and plan to get married in October this year.

"You have a lengthy criminal record but you have made changes in your life over the course of the last year.

"You are making progress and putting the past behind you.

"I am willing to give you one more chance."

Ramsey was sentenced to 12 weeks imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, with programme and rehabilitation requirements.