A drug dealer who was caught with thousands of pounds worth of cocaine after he was arrested in Aylesbury has been jailed.

Kayne Joseph, aged 19, was sentenced to three years in prison after he pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply cocaine at Aylesbury Crown Court on Friday.

The court heard how Joseph, of Greenford Road in Ealing, was arrested with two other men in Aylesbury in December 2020, and when police searched his home they found 60 grams of cocaine hidden behind the grate of his kitchen extractor fan.

The drugs had an estimated street value of more than £2,400.

Sentencing, judge Francis Sheridan said: “The public are sick and tired of drug dealers peddling their filth in Aylesbury.”

What did Joseph do?

The court heard from prosecutor Jonathan Stone how on December 4 last year, plain-clothes police officers noticed three men they suspected were drug users walking around in Aylesbury.

The suspects tried to run away when they noticed they were being followed, but officers eventually found them and arrested them. Joseph, who was one of the suspects, had no drugs or phone on him.

The following day, Metropolitan Police officers searched Joseph’s flat in Ealing, where they found 60.9 grams of cocaine stashed behind the grate of his kitchen extractor fan, as well as two sets of scales and “deal bags”.

The drugs had not been bagged up but 60 one-gram bags have an estimated street value of around £2,400.

When interviewed by police Joseph said he was visiting Aylesbury to go to a party, but he later pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply cocaine.

He had history…

Despite being only 18 when he committed this offence, Joseph had a previous conviction for assaulting an emergency worker in September 2020.

Mr Stone told the court how on the day of the incident, which took place in a bar near Chelsea, Joseph “went mad” before he had to be restrained by members of the public.

When police officers arrived on the scene, he twice attempted to headbutt one of them, and “missed by centimetres”.

Mr Stone said: “The defendant was held down by members of the public, when they said he had ‘gone mad’.

“He was swearing, saying ‘I’m going to kill him’.

“He then started being aggressive to police officers, he turned to one officer and threw his head towards him.

“He tried to headbutt him and did it another time, and missed by centimetres.”

The court heard that Joseph was on conditional discharge for this offence when he was caught with the drugs in December.

In his defence

Defence barrister Richard Reynolds asked the judge to consider giving his client a suspended sentence and take into account that he was only 18 when he committed the offence.

Mr Reynolds told the court that Joseph was not a “street dealer” and that he was the victim of exploitation.

When judge Sheridan asked him to provide evidence of this, Mr Reynolds said: “He has none of the accoutrement of someone that you would expect of someone in possession of valuable drugs.

“It was stored in his room. With what the court knows about people that are higher up the chain in drug dealing, those storing such amounts in their rooms are rarely the mastermind.”

In response, judge Sheridan said: “He’s not the mastermind, I don’t think for a moment that he is.”

Mr Reynolds also told the court that Joseph came from a “difficult background”, and that as a young man, he is “right on the cusp of where real change can happen.”

What did the judge say?

Despite thanking Mr Reynolds for an “outstanding mitigation” Judge Sheridan was ultimately unmoved and opted to sent Joseph to jail for three years.

He said: “The public are sick and tired of drug dealers peddling their filth on the streets of Aylesbury.

“The appropriate punishment must be immediate custody for the public confidence in the court to protect them from drug dealers.”

READ MORE ABOUT WHAT THE JUDGE SAID HERE >>

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