Novice Hartlepool drugs courier caught with 4.5 kilos of cannabis on first pick up

Aaron Kerr, 30, from Hartlepool, was stopped by police on the A1(M) motorway in North Yorkshire driving an Audi car with around 4.5 kilos of skunk cannabis in the boot.

A police drugs expert valued the cannabis at anything from £13,500 up to £76,000, Teesside Crown Court heard.

But Kerr walked free from court after the judge described him as a novice who had become tempted during difficult personal circumstances.

He also had to wait a number of years since his arrest due to separate but connected legal cases against other defendants.

Kerr was stopped on May 12 in 2017.

He directed officers to a box in the boot, and Jenny Haigh, prosecuting, said: “Inside the box officers discovered four triple layered heat sealed plastic packages.”

Kerr, of Innes Road, Hartlepool, told police he had been unemployed and homeless when he met an old school friend.

The pal offered Kerr a job to pick up a consignment of drugs in Liverpool in return for £200.

Kerr pleaded guilty to possession of a class B drug with intent to supply.

The court heard he had no previous convictions for drugs.

Andrew Finlay, mitigating, said: “He was given a small amount of payment relatively speaking.”

Judge Tim Stead told Kerr: “I am quite satisfied that you are a novice as far as anything to do with drug trafficking is concerned.

"I think this is your one and only departure into it.”

Kerr was given nine months prison, suspended for 12 months, and 75 hours unpaid work.

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