A COCAINE dealer caught as he tried to smuggle drugs with a street value of thousands of pounds into York has been jailed for three years.

John Robert Marsh, 52, had just bought the stash of cocaine for £500 in Leeds, York Crown Court heard.

But as he returned to the Yorkshire capital, police spotted him in Askham Fields Lane and caught him red-handed with the drugs.

“The message has to be a very clear one that if a drug dealer, whatever their age, goes out of town to bring supplies back for distribution, they run the risk of going to prison immediately,” the Recorder of York, Judge Stephen Ashurst told him.

“You accept you had paid £500 for the drugs knowing they were worth in excess of £2,000 to £4,000 on the street and therefore your motivation was plainly a financial one.”

Marsh, of Thoresby Road, Acomb, denied possessing 27g of cocaine with intent to supply it to others, and possessing 229g of cannabis with intent to supply it to others, but was convicted after a trial at York Crown Court.

He gave the jury a non-illegal explanation for his journey to Leeds. He later admitted he had gone to Leeds to buy drugs.

Fellow traveller and co-accused Michael Purnell, 41, of Garrow Hill Avenue, York, pleaded guilty to the cannabis charge and was jailed for nine months, suspended for two years on condition that he did 150 hours’ unpaid work and was ordered to pay £250 prosecution costs. He denied the cocaine charge and was acquitted.

Supporters of Marsh left the public gallery as soon as the judge made it clear Purnell was not going straight to jail and police officers were in court for the entire hearing. After the hearing, they moved Marsh’s supporters out of the building while Purnell was talking to his legal team and to a probation officer.

For Purnell, Nicholas Barker said he was a long-time cannabis user who had gone to Leeds to get cannabis for himself and his girlfriend.