A YOUNG man ‘cuckooed’ a Leamington drug addict’s flat to sell heroin and crack cocaine just weeks after being given a suspended sentence for fracturing a police officer’s eye socket.
And at Coventry Crown Court, Yeshuah Ogadih was jailed for three years after pleading guilty to possessing the two class A drugs with intent to supply them.
The 20-year-old, of Mill Street, Bilston, Wolverhampton, was also ordered to serve his 12-month suspended sentence consecutive to that, making a total of four years.
Prosecutor James Dunstan said on April 26 police went to Sayer Court to the home of a known drug-user who was 57-years-old ‘but came across as elderly.’
When they arrived they saw Ogadih leaving the flat, so stopped him and arrested him and the occupant.
Ogadih, who had £905 in cash on him and gave a false name and claimed he had only just met the other man.
At the police station he was searched and was found to have two packages in his underpants, containing wraps of heroin and crack cocaine with a potential street value of £4,000.
Mr Dunstan pointed out at the time Ogadih was subject to a 12-month suspended prison sentence which had only been imposed in March for causing grievous bodily harm.
That had followed an incident when he had punched a police officer to the face, fracturing his eye socket, after being stopped for a drugs search.
William Douglas-Jones, defending, said Ogadih had ‘lapsed into drug use’ while at college, where he still managed to obtain qualifications, and he has since undertaken a carpentry course while in custody.
Jailing Ogadih, Judge Philip Gregory told him: “You were found a very long way away from you home in Wolverhampton at the home of a man in Leamington.
“His home was obviously being used by you to deal drugs, in what is now commonly known as cuckooing.
“It is quite plain you were acting as an enthusiastic street dealer, seeking to make a substantial amount of money.”
But the judge, who ordered the £905 to be forfeited under the Misuse of Drugs Act, added: “You are still very young, and have ample time to turn your life around, and I’m told that is what you are trying to do.
“I wish you luck in that endeavour, because it will be a much better life for you than dealing in drugs.”
