A YOUNG man who was caught in a car with more than 80 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine has escaped being jailed after a judge criticised the police handling of the case.
Judge Peter Cooke said he was ‘unimpressed’ by the explanation given by Ahmed Sharmarkey for having the drugs – but ‘even less impressed by the investigation of this matter.’
Sharmarkey (20) of Foxglove Close, Holbrooks, Coventry, had pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to possessing heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply them.
He entered his pleas on the basis that he had been under pressure to hold the drugs for another person, but the prosecution alleged he was a street dealer.
Prosecutor Kevin Saunders said that in October 2016 police officers approached a car which was parked in Windsor Street, Spon End in Coventry, in the middle of the afternoon.
There were two occupants, and the officers could smell cannabis, which the driver had been smoking.
One of the officers noticed Sharmarkey was fidgeting and touching his groin area as if he had something secreted there, so he was asked if he had any drugs on him, which he denied.
He was arrested, and at the police station it was found he had a bag down his trousers in which there were 42 wraps of heroin and 39 wraps of crack, worth a total of £810.
Four phones and a note said to be a ‘dealer’s list’ were recovered from the car, as was a bag containing £100 in change.
And Mr Saunders said: “The finding of coins rather than wads of notes is consistent with dealing to impoverished addicts, according to the police drug expert.”
Giving evidence, Sharmarkey said he owed money to someone he was buying ‘weed’ from.
“He came and seen me that time and asked me to hold this item, otherwise he knows some of my family.”
Sharmarkey said that following his arrest he did at first deny having any drugs, but that at the police station he had taken the bag from down his trousers.
He accepted his fingerprints would be on the outer package, but asked by his barrister Ian Speed whether the police would find his prints on the individual wraps, he replied: “No.”
Sharmarkey said he knew nothing about the piece of paper found in the car or about any of the phones apart from his own, on which he said there was nothing to do with drugs, and that he did not know about the cash in the glove box.
Questioned by Mr Saunders, Sharmarkey, who said he had been on his way to play baseball with friends, insisted: “I am not a drug dealer.”
Mr Speed pointed out that none of the phones had been analysed by the police, the bag and the wraps had not been checked for fingerprints, and nor had the note or the bag of coins.
And he argued: “The Crown, through the officers, have a duty to examine all the evidence in a case, which they haven’t done, so he’s at a disadvantage.”
Judge Cooke commented: “I don’t believe for a minute everything he said. If you are leant on by someone to do this, you wouldn’t be going off to play baseball.
“But this investigation has fallen lamentably short of what they should have done.
“They haven’t analysed the phones, they haven’t looked at the packaging. It could have been handed over to him as a job lot.
“Although I’m very sceptical, I feel obliged to give him the benefit of the doubt.”
Urging him to pass a suspended sentence, Mr Speed added: “He’s not a bad lad, he’s saveable. He’s kept out of trouble since this. He’s a young man, I would suggest, you are not going to see again.”
Sharmarkey was sentenced to two years in prison suspended for two years, with a 20-day rehabilitation activity, and was ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid work.
Judge Cooke told him: “You have had a very close shave, because you have lent your assistance to a street dealer of class A drugs in circumstances which remain murky.
“I am unimpressed by some of the explanation you’ve given me – but I am even less impressed by the investigation of this matter.”
