Three-year sentence for drug dealer

A DRUG dealer sold hard drugs to undercover police officers on six separate occasions, a court was told.

Alamin Hoque (20) turned from user to a peddler of heroin and cocaine in order to try and pay off an £8,000 drug debt.

He became an active supplier in Oldham, where he built up a sizeable business.

Police nicknamed him The Lark and had him under observation as part of Operation Rescind, a major investigation targeting suppliers of Class A drugs in the town.

Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court was told that Hoque, of Chadderton Way, Oldham, sold cocaine to plain clothes police on a number of occasions in December last year.

As a result, on March 9, officers raided his home address where they recovered cocaine valued at £3,000 and scales.

He claimed in interview he had found the drugs in a telephone box during the early hours of the morning.

The court was told that while still on bail for the offence, officers again raided his home on June 2.

This time they seized 40 individual wraps of cocaine.

John Wishart, defending, said his client had no previous convictions. He had got himself involved in bad company and as a result drug dealing because he had amassed a substantial drug debt.

He said his client recognised what he had done was wrong, but deserved some credit for admitting the offences at an early opportunity.

Hoque pleaded guilty to nine separate offences: seven of supplying cocaine, one of supplying heroin and another of attempting to supply cocaine between December last year and February this year.

Sentencing him, judge Bernard Lever said he accepted that he had been an active street-level dealer acting at the behest of others.

He told him however, that he was adding an extra 12 months to his two-year sentence because he had continued to involve himself with drugs after being arrested in March.

“I am not amused that 40 wraps of cocaine were found at your address while you were still on bail,” he said. “You had had big warnings and this was a gross breach of your bail terms.”

Hoque will serve half his three-year sentence in a young offenders’ institution, and will then be released on license.