Thief had £2,000 cocaine and heroin

Petty thief Graham Swallow, 46, fell off his motocross bike when police tried to pull him over to discuss his numberplate, said Eddison Flint, prosecuting.

He had a package with 28.3g of cocaine and 28.9g of heroin he was taking from one place to another for drug dealers. Together the drugs were worth up to £2,000.

He also had a corded bracelet with a small blade on it.

He told police: “I didn’t want to do it” and that he was terrified of the drug dealers, said Mr Flint.

Defence solicitor advocate Graham Parkin said after his arrest Swallow refused to carry more drugs.

He had been beaten up so badly he had spent two or three days in hospital.

He had also been hospitalised for abscesses and been told he could lose a leg.

He would be “extremely” vulnerable in prison because of the contacts drug dealers have, said the solicitor advocate.

Swallow, then of no fixed abode and now of a village in Selby district, pleaded guilty to possessing heroin and cocaine with intent and carrying a blade in public.

“Ordinarily you are a petty thief and drug user, but you got into debt and it is quite clear ….. you were being forced into moving drugs for your dealer from A to B”, the Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris, told him.

He passed a two-year prison sentence suspended for two years on condition Swallow does a 12-month drug rehabilitation requirement and 20 days’ rehabilitative activities.

“It is a wholly exceptional sentence,” he said.

The judge said was Swallow’s first serious drug conviction, he now had stable accommodation for the first time in many years, a charity was ensuring his safety on a daily basis and he had physical health problems.

Mr Flint said Swallow told police he had run up drug debts of several thousand pounds.

Mr Parkin said Swallow was motivated to kick his drug habit because of his medical problems.