Drug user caught with hundreds of pounds of heroin just yards from Hartlepool police station

James Wright-King, 38, came to the police’s attention when he was seen having an argument with a woman and behaving erratically in Avenue Road where the town’s police station is also located.

He smelled of cannabis and was aggressive, so was put in a police van and searched.

Joseph Hedworth, prosecuting at Teesside Crown Court, said: “A bag containing what appeared to be a large amount of individually wrapped packets of brown powder was found.

“The defendant said ‘What’s that? I knew I shouldn’t have picked it up earlier’.”

The court heard it contained 17 small bags of the class A drug prepared for individual deals, worth around £170.

Another large bag of what turned out to be heroin was also found inside a folded up sock in Wright-King’s pocket.

It contained around 7.5 grams of the drug, enough for 25 deals with a value of £250.

He maintained he had found the discarded sock at a bus stop and would have sold it to buy crack cocaine for himself.

Wright-King, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to one count of possessing a class A drug with intent to supply.

The offence happened in January last year.

Nicci Horton, mitigating, said: “There’s no suggestion Mr Wright-King was out there daily selling to other users these drugs.

“It is not street dealing in the typical sense.”

She added: “He was in a difficult situation at the time. He was homeless. He made some poor decisions, but he was also heavily under the influence of drugs at the time.”

Ms Horton said Wright-King accepted prison was the best place for him due to his drug issues and homelessness.

A probation report said the risk of him reoffending was high.

Sentencing him to two and a half years prison, Judge Colin Burn said he had “no doubt” Wright-King would have sold the heroin for profit.

He said: “I’m satisfied the proceeds you would have made would have been used to fund your own crack cocaine habit.”