A DRUG dealer who was making around £2,000 a month from selling cannabis and amphetamine had more than £8,000 in cash stashed in the bedroom of his Rugby flat.
But despite the scale of his operation, Pavel Turek supplied drugs to ‘friends and associates.’ (s)escaped being jailed after Warwick Crown Court heard it was accepted he was only supplying to ‘friends and associates.’
The 47 year-old of Clifton Road, was given a 16-month sentence suspended for two years and ordered to do 240 hours of unpaid work after pleading guilty to possessing amphetamine and cannabis with intent to supply them.
Prosecutor Andrew Keogh said that in April two police officers on patrol in an unmarked car stopped a Turek in an Audi A6 estate in Clifton Road.
The officers noticed a strong smell of cannabis so searched the car, and in a brown wash-bag they found a large number of individual street deals of cannabis and a tobacco pouch containing 60 deals of amphetamine.
When he was arrested Turek confessed that they would find more drugs, 17 ounces of cannabis, at his home.
So the police searched his flat and recovered a box containing a large quantity of skunk cannabis in individual deals and a bag containing cannabis bud – enough for a further 435 £10 deals.
They also found another bag with 30 £10 deals and 14 £20 deals of cannabis, as well four bags of ‘stalk and leaf material.’
Turek also admitted there was amphetamine in the fridge, where the police then found a tennis ball-sized lump of in a bag and a smaller ball of it wrapped in foil, together worth around £600.
As well as the drugs, they seized £1,440 in cash and 950 euros from a cupboard in the bedroom and £6,200 in notes from a case under the bed.
And when he was interviewed, Turek said he was dealing to friends and associates, and was making approximately £2,000 a week – but claimed not all of the cash had come from drug-dealing.
The cash will be the subject of a confiscation hearing under the Proceeds of Crime Act at a later date after financial investigators have looked into Turek’s finances.
And Mr Keogh pointed out as well as the money in the flat, there had been more than £13,000 in cash deposits into Turek’s bank account during the period he had been dealing.
Giving a verbal pre-sentence report, probation officer Michael Hall said Turek had come to the UK from Slovakia in 2007, intending for his partner and their two children to follow – but they split up and she remained in Slovakia with the children.
He had had a business in Slovakia, but had gone bankrupt, and his motivation for coming here was to make money to pay back what he owed – but he found he was not earning enough to do so.
Sentencing Turek, Recorder Nicholas Syfret QC told him: “Even though you were supplying to your friends, drug abuse undermines society.”
