'Angry' drug dealer, 20, is jailed over heroin and crack cocaine in car
A drug dealer, who came to Wolverhampton as an asylum seeker with his family ten years ago, has been locked up for two-and-a-half years.
Takudzwa Kumire, 20, was convicted by a jury after Shrewsbury Crown Court heard he was found with 12 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine in a car, on July 16 last year.
Kumire was found guilty of possession with intent to supply the drugs.
Judge Anthony Lowe heard from Kumire’s mother in court, who told him of her son’s difficult life and said he had become an angry young man after they were both falsely accused of a robbery.
Judge Lowe told Kumire, now has since moved to Telford: “I can’t put right the wrongs in the past, but you can choose to be an angry young man, or be like your mother and do something more positive.”
The jury heard how Kumire was the front-seat passenger of a car parked in the Woodside area of Telford, when police approached.
He had a mobile phone in his hand which was seized along with a bag containing the drugs, which he had been trying to hide down his trousers. He also had £104 in cash.
Kumire told jurors he did not know there were drugs in the car until just before the police approached, and said the phone was not his.
When questioned by prosecuting barrister Frances Willmott about the phone, Kumire said he had been holding it for about half an hour when they were approached by the police.
In that time he said he had not made any calls or texts. But analysis of the phone found two calls had been made to the number a text – relating to the supply of drugs – was received from.
When asked whether the £104 had come from drug dealing, as he was unemployed at the time, Kumire said it had not, but refused to offer another explanation.
David Isles, defending, said Kumire had no previous convictions for drug offences.
He called Kumire’s mother Rosemarie to address the court, and she explained her family left Zimbabwe due to political unrest and were given asylum in 2008.
She described her son as a soft and polite boy, but said he changed after the pair were accused of robbing a post office in the street they lived at the time, in Bilston. She said people were driving them out of the area, and eventually no further action was taken and they were offered a police apology.
Judge Lowe told Kumire he had his whole life ahead of him, but he had no other option than to impose a custodial sentence.
Kumire was jailed for two-and-a-half years. He will be released after serving half the sentence.
