Trusted Hartlepool drug dealer found with large amount of crack and 'calling cards'

Police uncovered stashes of crack cocaine worth almost £5,000 when they went to 23-year-old Matthew Lord’s house in Studley Road, in Belle Vue, Hartlepool, on another matter in March.

As he was being detained in the backyard, officers heard a phone ringing and found two handsets in a bin, together with wraps of crack cocaine worth £230.

Paul Newcombe, prosecuting at Teesside Crown Court, said: “This prompted a search of the main house and in the main bedroom they found a block of crack cocaine.”

It was valued at £4,600 if divided into street deals.

Also found was a set of digital scales, £620 and strips of paper with Lord’s mobile numbers on them, which the prosecution said were “drug dealer calling cards”.

Mr Newcombe added: “The phones had messages on them, three of which were consistent with the defendant setting his table out and letting others who wanted to buy drugs know that he was available and that the shop was open.”

Lord, of Barbara Mann Court, Hartlepool, was jailed for three and a half years after he pleaded guilty to possession of class A drugs with intent to supply.

Martin Scarborough, mitigating, said Lord had agreed to sell the drugs to pay off a prison drug debt and claimed he had only been doing it for about a week.

It was his first offence for drugs, added Mr Scarborough.

Judge Jonathan Carroll told Lord: “Whatever your precise role in the chain of offending, those amounts of drugs are not entrusted by those higher up the chain to people that they don’t trust.”

Police welcomed the outcome of the case. Detective Sergeant Jonny Christie from Hartlepool CID said: “Locating the drugs at the property was an added bonus in our search for Matthew Lord.

“The sentence given to him today is welcomed as it means this is one more person taken from our community who cause nothing but misery to the people living in it.

“Class A drugs are dangerous and can be lethal. The Force will not tolerate anyone supplying potentially harmful drugs to our communities and the sentence given to Lord today reflects the seriousness of his crimes.”