A cocaine-addicted university student was being used by a dealer to peddle the Class A drug to others, a court has heard. The student was caught with wraps of the drug in the toilets of a popular nightclub and that discovery led police to finding a visitor from the West Midlands in his halls of residence room along with dozens of wraps of of cocaine and more than £1,600 in cash. Swansea Crown Court heard both defendants have turned their lives around in the almost four years since they were caught – a delay in the case being sentenced which one barrister called "extraordinary".
The court heard that on February 23, 2019, staff at the Pier Pressure club in Aberystwyth became suspicious of the activity of two men in a toilet cubicle and alerted the police. University student Maajid Shah was found in the cubicle with five wraps of cocaine. The student was arrested and officers then went to his room in the halls of residence where they found Jamal Berry-Parkes and £1,627 in cash. A search of the room found 80 wraps of cocaine hidden inside a sock but while the officers were searching the room Berry-Parkes fled in an incident the judge called "almost comedic". Both defendants subsequently denied any knowledge of the drug-filled sock.
Maajid Ali Shah, now aged 24, of Stratford Road, Hall Green, Birmingham, and 23-year-old Jamal Barry-Parkes of Selsdon Close, Wythall, West Midlands, had both previously been convicted at trial of possession of cocaine with intent to supply in regards to the drugs found in the room when they appeared in the dock for sentencing. Shah had previously pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to supply in regard to the wraps he had in the club toilet. Neither defendant has any previous convictions.
