A drug dealer said texts telling addicts he was "about all day and night" were only offering cannabis and ketamine for sale.
Convicted cocaine and heroin dealer Alex Nicholson was stopped by police in a Renault Megane, in Everite Road in Widnes, on January 16 this year. Officers searched the car and didn't find any drugs, but in the 29-year-old's jacket pocket discovered a Nokia described as a "burner type mobile phone".
Liverpool Crown Court heard the device was found to contain outgoing "flare" messages, offering drugs for sale, to known addicts in Northwich, Cheshire. One message sent out on New Year's Eve read: "About all day and night, 40s, two for 70, three for 100." Another, sent on January 6, read: "New work, on now."
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Nicholson, of Lakenheath Road, Halewood, was charged with two offences of being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs, namely crack cocaine and heroin. However, when he appeared at court in February, he indicated he would be willing to plead guilty in relation to the Class B drugs cannabis and ketamine instead.
Kyra Badman, prosecuting, today said the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had reconsidered the case and now asked to prefer a new indictment consisting of two offences of offering to supply Class B drugs, which Nicholson then admitted. Ms Badman explained it was the contents of Nicholson's phone that formed the evidence in the case and while there were flare messages advertising drugs for sale, they did not specify the type of drug.
She said: "Initially, given Mr Nicholson's antecedent record and the background to the case, it was thought there would be sufficient evidence to demonstrate they were Class A drugs. But having reconsidered the evidence and the contents of the messages themselves, they are non-specific to the type of drug."
The court heard texts came back from people asking to be supplied with drugs, before a user of the phone sent responses including "he's on the way now", "coming to you" and "he's on the way". Judge David Hale said this was a "supply network" and Ms Badman agreed it was "slightly more sophisticated than the usual street dealing type case".
Nicholson has 23 previous convictions for 41 offences dating back to his youth, including conspiracy to supply heroin and cocaine in 2013. In 2019 he was convicted of possessing heroin and cocaine with intent to supply and jailed for four years. He has now been recalled to prison on licence.
Ms Badman said the prosecution was not able to say exactly how much was supplied. The judge said the evidence indicated Nicholson was "an experienced man in the field", it wasn't "small scale" and it was the equivalent of a "County Lines" operation, involving drugs being dealt from Halewood to Northwich.
John Wyn Williams, defending, said the Crown couldn't prove to the criminal standard the amounts involved. However, he conceded it was "not a normal case because of the text messages and County Lines element".
He said his client's best mitigation was his guilty pleas and said: "Your honour is aware of his previous convictions." Judge Hale replied: "He is too."
The judge told Nicholson he would give him credit of 25% for his guilty pleas, from a starting point of four years in prison. Jailing him for three years, Judge Hale said: "You say it's cannabis and ketamine and the prosecution can't dispute it. But it's done in a much more professional way than the usual street dealing of cannabis, flash messages in their hundreds, offering amounts of drugs, 40-odd or more pounds."
The judge said he couldn't be sure regarding the amount of drugs Nicholson had supplied, but in that category it was "more than the usual", and told him his case was aggravated by his previous convictions and "your knowledge as to how these things work". He said: "If you were offering to supply cannabis and ketamine, well it's street dealing level at a much higher range than normal."
