A drugs runner spotted with addicts after he emerged from a shrubbery has been given a ‘last chance’.
Alhaidar Abakar, 18, turned to selling drugs as a result of naivety, exploitation and a need to make cash after leaving local authority care when he became an adult, Oxford Crown Court heard.
The West Midlands native was arrested in South Park on October 4 after police saw him emerge from a bush, palm what was suspected to be drugs to two men then return to his bower.
Police officers raided his shrubbery hideout. Secreted in various pockets, Abakar had a total of £1,375 in cash. A Nokia ‘burner’ phone contained calls and messages to addicts and others in the gang, leading authorities to twig he was an off-shoot of a larger drugs operation.
Abakar, of West Bromwich, West Midlands, pleaded guilty at the magistrates’ court to being concerned in the supply of class A drugs and possession of criminal cash. He had one previous conviction and a youth caution for dealing cannabis.
And on Thursday, Judge Maria Lamb sentenced him to 20 months’ imprisonment suspended for two years.
“I’m taking a chance. If you throw it away you know what’s waiting for you,” she said.
“This is your chance. You’ve seen it’s not been a chance I am giving you particularly enthusiastically, but it is a chance and if you don’t take it you will have only yourself to blame.”
Mitigating, Emma Hornby painted a depressing picture of her young client’s childhood.
Raised initially in London, his mother had suffered domestic abuse – and the children witnessed violence from an early age.
The family moved to Birmingham but, when the mother suffered similar abuse in her second marriage and the relationship ended, the siblings were split up and Abakar was taken into care.
He had a brief period of ‘stability’ under the care of social services, Ms Hornby said. “At the point which he turned 18 in the spring, that financial support stopped. He was then required to [find] accommodation and finance that himself.”
The barrister added: “He was finding it exceptionally difficult to make ends meet with his rent, the cost of living and having been exposed to all these responsibilities he had not once had.”
She said of the drug dealing: “This is the worst mistake of his life and has been a real wake-up call to him.”
As part of his suspended sentence, Abakar must complete 200 hours of unpaid work and up to 50 rehabilitation activity requirement days.
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This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.
To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk
Follow him on Twitter: @t_seaward
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