A MAN with a history of violence and drug dealing has been spared a trip to prison after police found his cache of cocaine.
Police carried out covert surveillance of Ryan Cross in scrubland off Bishopthorpe Road, said Brian Russell, prosecuting.
When they searched the area, they found a plastic tub containing cocaine worth between £2,275 and £3,350.
Cross, 32, of Alness Drive, Woodthorpe, denied being concerned in the supply of cocaine until a jury was sworn in at York Crown Court and then changed his plea on a basis that only accepted some of the prosecution case against him.
The prosecution accepted the basis.
Judge Simon Hickey said that if Cross had fought the matter out at trial he could have been jailed for three and a half years.
But because of the basis of his plea and other matters, he could suspend the prison sentence.
He said Cross’ parents had told the court their son had turned his life around since his latest arrest, was a reformed character and now ran his own business.
The cocaine had not been for street deals. Cross had been buying it for himself and his friends and had not been making a profit out of it, said the judge.
Cross was given a 20-month prison sentence suspended for two years on condition he does 30 days’ rehabilitative activities and 150 hours’ unpaid work.
In 2016 Cross was jailed for three and a half years for possessing Ecstasy with intent to supply it and dangerous driving.
York Crown Court heard on that occasion that he led police on a 100mph chase along country roads before being caught.
In 2010 he was jailed at the same court for five years for his part in a gang attack that left a man with a broken cheek bone and was also sentenced for an affray and causing actual bodily harm in the same year.
Cross’ barrister for the cocaine case, Dan Cordey, did not give any mitigation after the judge said he would suspend the prison sentence.
Mr Russell said police started the undercover operation after reports in late 2021 of someone behaving suspiciously in the scrubland near the former chocolate factory on Bishopthorpe Road.
They saw Cross go into the scrubland on more than one occasion, and on one occasion, saw an individual, who they were unable to identify, in the dark with a torch.
They identified Cross as being connected to the cache through the distinctive clothing he was wearing, automatic numberplate recognition cameras recording the movements of his vehicle and cell site analysis of the location of a phone linked to him.
They also found messages on his phone when they confiscated it after his arrest suggestive of drug dealing.
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