A DRUG dealer from Weymouth was taken to prison kicking and screaming after being jailed for two years for supplying class A drugs.

Owen Hughes, aged 22, of Avenue Road, Weymouth, was given the sentence at Dorchester Crown Court after admitting possession with intent to supply heroin and cannabis.

He also admitted to possessing crack cocaine.

Christopher Stopa, prosecuting, told the court that just after 10am on Monday, September 14, two officers were on patrol in Derby Street, Weymouth, when they saw a number of known drug users gathered in an alleyway in Derby Street, Weymouth.

When Hughes saw the police officers, he threw something over a nearby garden fence and tried to run away from the officers, Mr Stopa said.

However, he was detained and officers also searched the garden, finding a plastic bag containing brown powder, the court heard.

Following his arrest, Mr Stopa said police searched Hughes’ home, where they found various drug paraphernalia, 12 wraps of white powder which was later tested to be crack cocaine, two bags of cannabis, and a number of bags containing brown powder, which tests showed was heroin.

Mr Stopa said in Hughes’ interview with police, he admitted to possessing the heroin and cannabis and intended to sell them, and he started dealing drugs three days before his arrest. He also admitted to possessing the crack cocaine.

Mr Stopa told the court Hughes had 16 previous convictions for 20 previous offences, and that because of his arrest, he was in breach of a nine-week suspended sentence given to him in July this year. The court heard he was given the sentence after he attempted to blackmail his own father, by saying he had been kidnapped and that his kidnappers wanted money to free him.

Mitigating, Mr Thomas Horder said Hughes was remanded in custody since admitting the charges on September 22, and the time ensuing 11 weeks had acted as a “turning point in his client’s life”, and that he had completed a drug rehabilitation order during that time.

He added that Hughes’ “life had been completely turned upside down by drugs” after he got in with the wrong crowd, and that his family said they were desperate for Hughes to get off drugs and that they would do anything to help him.

Hughes’ father Michael also pleaded spoke to the judge to ask for his son not to be jailed, saying he had forgiven his son for the blackmail plot, and that his son needed a “clean break”.

Judge Fuller sentenced Hughes to two years in prison for the Class A drug offences, and for three months for the cannabis offence, to run concurrently. He did not invoke the suspended sentence.

Passing down the sentence, he added: “You have a supportive family and they will support you during your sentence, and hopefully the outcome will be that you rid yourself of this addiction.

“In the circumstances, you were fully aware that you were likely to land yourself in prison, but you nevertheless brought that upon yourself.”

As he left the dock sobbing, Hughes could be heard kicking the doors of the custody suite and screaming.