Crack cocaine. Library pictures

by Keith Hunt

A drug addict who acted as a runner after getting into financial difficulties has been jailed for three years.

Benjamin Deacon was caught in an undercover police operation in Swale codenamed Invoice.

Maidstone Crown Court heard the 22-year-old supplied an undercover officer known as Daz with a wrap of crack cocaine (similar to that pictured above) in a cemetery off Sittingbourne High Street in June last year.

Jane Scotchmer, prosecuting, said Deacon supplied the officer on three other occasions.

The former Fulston Manor student, of Adelaide Drive, Sittingbourne, admitted four charges of supplying drugs.

Mrs Scotchmer said Deacon was “very much at the bottom of the chain”.

He was said to have left college at 16 and worked, but then lost his job and fell into debt. He became involved in dealing drugs.

Judge Philip St John-Stevens told Deacon: “Anyone who deals in Class A drugs must appreciate they bring misery to people and wreck lives.

“Anyone involved in the supply of Class A drugs must expect an immediate significant term of imprisonment.

"You can be described as a low level retailer, who did not hold any stock.”

More than three months spent in custody will count towards the sentence.