A DRUG dealer was caught after he was spotted sampling his own wares in the smoking garden of a Rugby nightclub.
And at Warwick Crown Court dealer Matthew Mays, of New Street, Rugby, pleaded guilty to two charges of possessing cocaine with intent to supply it.
The 37 year-old was jailed for two years and four months and was ordered to pay a £900 court charge as well as having £80 which the police had found on him confiscated.
Prosecutor Simon Hunka said in the early hours of May 2, a Rugby town centre CCTV officer saw what he believed was a drug deal taking place in the garden area of the Boutique and the Beach night club.
The door staff at the club were alerted, and the operator guided them to the person he had seen – who turned out to be Mays.
They detained him and escorted him from the garden before the police, who had also been contacted, turned up.
While officers were talking to him, one of the door staff noticed him drop a small bag of white powder; and when he was asked what it was he admitted it was cocaine.
Two further bags were found on him when he was then arrested, and a further four were discovered in his sock when he was searched at Rugby police station.
At Mays’ house, police found 23 deals of cocaine.
They also found a small electric blender with traces of cocaine in it, some benzocaine, which is frequently used to ‘cut’ cocaine when reducing its purity for street deals, some scales and a quantity of small re-sealable plastic bags.
When questioned Mays said he had been supplying friends and associates with cocaine for a couple of months because he was having trouble paying bills.
He said he would buy a quarter of an ounce of cocaine every couple of weeks and then cut it and divide it into deals which he then sold, making up to £900 a week.
And Mr Hunka said the 30 deals found by the police would be worth up to a total of £685 – but there was sufficient benzocaine to make a further 271 deals.
His solicitor Jenny McVeigh said Mays had secured a job and had been open with his employers about the case, and the job would remain open to him, should he be in a position to return to it.
She added Mays had also been open with the police telling them how long he had been dealing.
Judge Richard Griffith-Jones told Mays: “I accept you were tempted to make this money by reason of hardship.
“You have to understand that if you participate in the supply of drugs in the way you have, only a custodial sentence can be justified.”
