A “NORMAL family man’s” plans to get rich quick led him to turning professional gambler and drug dealer, York Crown Court heard.

Today poker player Ashley Mark Locker, 30, is in jail after police found cocaine worth up to £7,650 in his house and car and more than £2,000 in cash.

The Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris, told him: “You chose to get rich quick, a lifestyle choice to become a dealer in Class A drugs. Big money can be made.

“How many people got robbed, I wonder, in order to pay you, how many people were burgled, I wonder, in order to pay you, how many children went hungry because their mothers’ partners spent all the household income to pay you? You made a business decision.

“People who make a business decision to become drug dealers need to know they go away, straightaway.”

Locker, of Throxenby, Scarborough, pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine with intent to supply. He was jailed for 26 months.

His barrister Anna Bond said Locker had been a “normal family man”.

He had had a knee operation when he was 26 that had stopped him working at the local factory where he had been employed for eight years.

“He saw he could make more money by poker than working,” she said.

At first he had success as a professional gambler, but he lost money and became addicted.

Out of desperation, he turned to drug dealing and made “probably the worst mistake of his life".

“That is how he ended up where he is today,” said Ms Bond. “He has lost money, he has lost friends, he has lost respect. He has genuine remorse.”

Since his arrest, he had started going to Gamblers' Anonymous and now had a support network in place to stop him returning to gambling. He also got a job working for a housing management company. “He has turned his life around,” she said.

Matthew Collins, prosecuting, said when police stopped Locker’s car in November 2019, they found more than £2,000 in cash as well as cocaine.

They searched his house and in total found cocaine worth between £6,120 and £7,650.