Women drug peddlers jailed

Two young women and a 17-year-old youth were caught trying to peddle crack cocaine and heroin to drug users in Yarmouth, a court heard yesterday.

Maria Allen, 21, and Gemma Taylor, 22, were stopped after observations were kept by drug squad officers and Allen tried to discard eight wraps of heroin, Norwich Crown Court was told.

When a search was made at a guest house they had been staying, a 17-year-old male youth was found in the room and 65 wraps of crack cocaine and 27 wraps of heroin with a street value of £1,000 were found as well as £550 in cash.

Allen and Taylor and the youth admitted conspiracy to supply crack cocaine and heroin on February 27 this year.

Allen and Taylor were jailed for 30 months and the youth was given an 18-month detention and training order.

Sentencing them, Recorder Anthony Bate told Allen and Taylor they had acted as street runners while the youth had also played a significant part helping count the cash raised from street sales of the drugs.

“Your customers were established users in the Great Yarmouth area.”

He told the two women, who themselves had both been users of Class A drugs, that they should have known the misery these drugs cause.

“By your own previous addiction to hard drugs you know the sort of suffering they can cause.”

Katharine Moore, for Allen, said she was a vulnerable user at the time and had been addicted to crack cocaine.

She acted as a runner to fund her addiction.

“She was not high up the chain of supply.”

She said while remanded in custody Allen had been making the most of her time and attending education classes and getting counselling.

Matthew McNiff, for Taylor, said that she had been a user of Class A drugs and was homeless at the time. That was how she had got involved in something which was “out of her depth”.

Andrew Oliver for the youth said he was “naive” and was not a user of hard drugs.

He said he was at low risk of reoffending.