Halesowen drug seller stopped from spreading misery (From Halesowen News)

Halesowen drug seller stopped from spreading misery

3:09pm Tuesday 12th March 2013 in Local

A FAILED Halesowen businessman turned to drug selling in a bid to escape spiralling debts, a court heard.

But Martin Ruddock, who was caught in a police operation with £80,000 worth of cocaine, has been jailed for five-and-a-half years.

Judge John Wait told the father-of-five the sale of the drug would have “brought misery” to the streets of the West Midlands before sentencing him at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

Ruddock, aged 35, who was also growing cannabis at his Fullwood Avenue home, was grabbed with two other men when police officers pounced on the car park of the Pro-Fitness centre, Nimmings Road.

He was caught with a kilo of cocaine, which had a purity of 77 per cent, along with Harjit Dulay and his 27-year-old nephew Amardeep Dulay who had brought the consignment of drugs up from Oxfordshire.

Bernard Linnemann, prosecuting, said a number of mobile phones were seized by the police which proved there had been "substantial" contact between the three men.

He said that when police went to Ruddock's home they found he had been growing cannabis in three rooms that could produce up to five kilos of the controlled drug inside a year.

Jason Aris, defending, said Ruddock turned to crime when his business failed leaving him with spiralling debts.

Ruddock and Amardeep Dulay, of Northfold Grove, Great Barr, both pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine with intent to supply - a charge denied by 43-year-old Harjit Dulay, of Broadwater Road, Darlaston.

But he was found guilty by a jury at the end of his trial and jailed for seven-and-a-half years while Amardeep Dulay was sent to prison for three years and four months.

Ruddock also pleaded guilty to producing cannabis and he and his two accomplices were told by the judge it was clear they had all played a significant role in bringing the cocaine to the area.

He said it was a large scale commercial transaction, adding; "This drug would have been split up and sold on the streets spreading misery."

"The motivation was purely profit. You were involved in this criminal enterprise that involved planning and a degree of sophistication."