Jailed: Drug dealer tried hiding himself and cocaine in Wendy House after dangerous police chase

When the dog, and officers searched the Wendy House, in the garden of a house in Wollescote, they found cocaine worth £3,000 and two mobile phones, with the boot of the car containing cannabis worth up to £7,500, a machete and zombie knife and the original number plates of the vehicle

Sutton was already banned from driving when a police officer spotted the vehicle on cloned plates on Lye High Street on July 23 last year and attempted to block the car in. He managed to reverse out of the parking space and then led the officer, and others, on a chase through the streets of Lye and Wollescote in which he ignored stop signs and took a wrong turn, and drove at up to 70mph towards pedestrians.

Andrew Wilkins, prosecuting, said: “He drove dangerously through busy streets and eventually collided with a wall, and ran off through random gardens in the Wollescote area, attempting to hide in a Wendy House before a team was brought in including a sniffer dog who managed to detect him and he was apprehended.”

“When he, the Wendy House and the getaway car was searched, police found cannabis in a zip bag, a taser , cocaine and a zombie style knife – the phones when examined showed evidence of drugs deals being made going back to the start of the year.”

Sutton was coming up to the end of a suspended sentence he had received in July 2020 when he was found in possession of cannabis and had already been convicted of drug dealing then and was also given eight months to serve on the basis of breaching that sentence.

Lucinda Wilmot Lascelles, defending, said Sutton had been 20 at the time of the first offence in 2020 and had gone through a tough time during lockdown, being made redundant from a job he had worked at since leaving school.

She said: “He was under a lot of pressure and was already a recreational drug user, having first used cannabis at the age of 12 and cocaine from the age of 16 for recreational purposes. It is not an easy thing to stop doing and when the money stopped coming in from employment he sometimes got drugs ‘on tick’ and started owing acquaintances and dealers who were supplying him money.

“They were not very forgiving and came round to his mother’s house, threatening her and asking her to get him to come outside – the pressure built on him and he started doing jobs for them to pay off his debts to an extent, it was one of these runs using a vehicle supplied by someone higher up the chain.”

“Since being on remand in prison he has gone on various drug rehabilitation courses and also works full time – he realises he is at a crossroads which could lead to a permanent life of crime or him becoming a responsible member of society which he wants to do.”

For last year’s offence Sutton, aged, 25, of Whitehall Road, Cradley Heath was given 45 months for possessing class A drugs with intent to supply. For possession and the intent to supply cannabis he was given nine months as he was for driving whilst banned.

He was given three months for possessing two bladed articles and nine months for possessing a prohibited weapon, all to run concurrently. He was further banned from driving for two years and three months.