Kingsbury student dealt drugs to pay way through university  

A KINGSBURY student caught peddling drugs to pay his way through university has been jailed for two years.

Robert Ovens left thousands of text messages on his mobile phones offering to supply 'customers' with various drugs, including class A ecstasy, Stafford Crown Court heard.

He and co-accused Samuel Kelly were arrested after police stopped a Ford Mondeo in Coleshill Street, Fazeley on 19 October last year.

Ovens was driving, Kelly was a passenger and officers smelled cannabis in the vehicle, said Mr Gerry Bermingham, prosecuting.

Ovens had a plastic bag containing £140 worth of cannabis in his coat, there were 11 small bags of cannabis worth £110 in the vehicle and some loose cannabis and cash was in the glove box.

But it was the mobile phones seized from the defendants, two belonging to Ovens and one from Kelly which revealed the extent of their drug dealing.

Literally thousands of messages relating to drug deals were found, including offers from Ovens to supply ecstasy, cannabis and ketamine. Ovens, aged 21, of Sorrel Drive, Kingsbury, admitted possessing drugs with intent to supply and offering to supply class A, B and C drugs.

Kelly, also 21, of Laburnum Close, Kingsbury, who admitted possessing drugs with intent to supply and offering to supply cannabis was jailed for six months.

Judge Simon Tonking told them: "You were obviously involved in ongoing dealing in cannabis, you have both been involved in offering to supply cannabis over a period of six months.

"You Ovens went further because during that same period, you were also offering to supply ecstasy and ketamine. You were doing this not just to fund your own addiction, you were trying to make money to fund your way through university. For you, this was very much a business."

Mr David Hemmings, for Ovens, said his client was studying at Leeds Metropolitan University and was on track for a promising career within business management.

"He was a young man in debt and with a drugs problem of his own."

Ovens's downfall was leaving the messages on the phones.

Mr Darron Whitehead, for Kelly, said his client had been using cannabis for the last eight years, since he was at school

http://www.tamworthherald.co.uk/Student-21-dealing-drugs-pay-way-university/story-22943704-detail/story.html 18/09/2014