Drug dealer gets six years in jail

Claimed he lent heroin to friends —who would thank him with money

A prolific Oldham drug dealer has been jailed for six years and three months.

Shabaz Riaz (31), of Thurland Road, was put behind bars after he admitted possessing a class A drug with intent to supply, and 10 counts of supplying class A drugs.

A Limeside woman, Jennifer Deveney, was also sentenced for drug dealing, after £19,000 worth of crack cocaine was found at a house during a raid.

Deveney (28), of Second Avenue, admitted at an earlier hearing to possessing class A drugs with intent to supply, and two charges of supplying class A drugs.

The pair were sentenced at Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester.

Deveney was ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work along with a 12-month probation order.

Before the case went ahead, the judge heard in a legal hearing that Riaz was not a drug dealer.

He said he was a drug user who lent his own drugs to friends then, by way of kindness, his friends would give him some money.

The judge failed to accept his claim, and Riaz was jailed on Friday.

Both Riaz and Deveney were arrested in Operation Font, a covert drugs operation carried out in Oldham.

The court heard that between April and September, 2009, Riaz dealt heroin and cocaine to local addicts, selling from his backyard gate, which overlooks Cleeve Road.

Riaz came out of his house, and customers went into his back garden to “score.”

Det Cons Robert Carroll said: “Riaz was not that long out of prison when he was caught dealing again.

“He was sentenced to 54 months in prison back in 2003 and has got straight out of prison and started dealing again.

“Obviously more than four years in prison was not enough for this man to learn his lesson.

“Hopefully this sentence will allow him to realise that police in Oldham will not let anyone get away with drug-related crime and eventually we will catch up with them.”

He added in relation to Deveney: “Any recovery of an illegal drug is a good result, but the amount seized from her house represented a considerable find.

“We are working hard in Oldham to bring those involved in this type of crime to justice.”