POLICE have released the mugshot of a drug dealer who claimed to officers that two blocks of cocaine found at her home were her ex-partner’s who had “forgotten about it”.
Melissa Morris was jailed for a total of three years and nine months for possession with intent to supply cocaine, possession of criminal property, possession of cannabis and possession of amphetamine.
Morris pleaded guilty to each of the charges.
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Prosecutor Sian Cutter told Swansea Crown Court that police were called to an address on Goat Street in Haverfordwest at around 6pm on January 10 after reports of a woman screaming at the address.
Melissa Morris let them in and told the officers that she had been crying about her partner. However, the officers could smell cannabis in the property.
The officers found nine grams of cannabis, cannabis edible sweets, two small bags each containing around half a gram of cocaine and a small bag of amphetamine.
“The defendant said she had just a small amount of cocaine and didn’t know where it had come from,” Ms Cutter said. However, as she was talking to the officers, she was seen glancing over to where two blocks of cocaine were later found.
Upon searching the property, officers found the two blocks of cocaine – one 54g and the other 7.25g – on the floor by the bed.
In total, Morris was found to have 62.238g of cocaine – with a street value of around £7,900, 11.3g of cannabis, and 1.8g of amphetamine.
The police also found digital weighing scales with powder on them, small bags, and £850 cash in a drawer.
Morris told the police that her ex-partner used to sell drugs, and “she thought he had forgotten about it and left it there”.
She said the small bags “weren’t for dealing” but were instead so she could measure out her own personal use, and that the cash wasn’t from drug dealing and was instead savings and Christmas money.
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Morris, 30, has four previous convictions for six offences.
“Since last year, the defendant’s life has gone spectacularly off the rails,” said Dan Griffiths, in mitigation.
“On her own admission, she has had issues with alcohol and drug abuse.
“It seems that she’s lurched from one toxic relationship to another.
“The defendant used drink and drugs as a way to escape her problems.
“Since her remand she has completed a detox programme. It’s clear she wants to use the sentence to her advantage.”
Addressing Morris, Judge Huw Rees said: “You were 30 years old in June last year. The time has come for you to make choices in your life which you have failed to make hitherto.
“This is serious offending.
“You should know that supplying Class A and other drugs causes social dysfunction, increases criminality and causes injury and death.”
She was jailed for three years and nine months for the cocaine charge. She was also sentenced to two months for possession of criminal property, and one month each for possession of cannabis and amphetamine. These will all run concurrently.
Judge Rees ordered that the £850 was to be used by Dyfed-Powys Police to help combat drug trafficking.
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