Hartlepool pill pedlar caught with hundreds of sedatives during search at Middlesbrough police station

Amy Cawley, 28, was found with dozens of benzodiazepine-like sedative tablets hidden about her person when she was taken to Middlesbrough Police Station after being arrested for an unrelated incident.

Officers carried out a strip search and found over 1,000 pills on her body and hidden in her bra after police initially found several more in her handbag.

She also disposed of some down a toilet which dissolved.

Police found more of the two makes of tablets inside a shoebox when they went back to the address in Thackeray Road, Hartlepool, where she was arrested in August 2020.

Jonathan Gittins, prosecuting at Teesside Crown Court, said a police drugs expert valued the pills totalling 1500 at just over £1,500.

More than £300 was also found on Cawley. Mr Gittens added: “Her mobile phone was downloaded and the content reviewed which identified a number of text messages indicative of street dealing throughout July and August.”

Cawley, of Northgate, Hartlepool, pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing class C drugs with intent to supply.

In her favour, the court heard she had no similar previous convictions and had personal difficulties including mental health issues and a drug habit.

The probation service said she posed a low risk of reoffending.

The Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Paul Watson, told Cawley it was a substantial quantity of pills.

He sentenced her to six months in prison suspended for 18 months, together with a drug treatment requirement and 18 rehabilitation activity days.