Hartlepool man caught with cocaine stash in Stockton sentenced at Teesside Crown Court

Police caught Jay Matthews, from Hartlepool, with ten small bags of cocaine when officers stopped an Audi he was travelling in in Stockton after attending a house party.

In total, there was just over five grams of the class A drug with an estimated street value of £250 and he also had £345 in cash.

Teesside Crown Court heard a Nokia mobile phone Matthews was in possession of contained messages “consistent with drug dealing”.

One sent to a number of potential customers stated: “Out and about best in town, drop off anywhere.”

Matthews, 26, denied the phone was his but pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to supply on the grounds he would have shared the drugs with friends.

He had previous convictions including drug driving and production of cannabis.

Nicci Horton, defending, said Matthews, of Lowthian Road, Hartlepool, was addicted to cocaine at the time in September 2020 but has since stopped using the drug.

She said: “This is a relatively small amount of drugs and an even smaller proportion of that was for onward supply for no profit.

"There has been no further offending since.”

Judge Chris Smith told Matthews drugs cause real problems for society from addiction to violence and if he appeared before the court again for such offences he would almost certainly be jailed.

Matthews was given a 20-month prison sentence, which was suspended for 18 months, and ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work.