Man who flagged down police for help was dealing in drugs

Ranjit Singh Grewal was complaining about damage caused to his VW Golf in a hit-and-run incident in Hyde Park, Leeds.

But when officers spoke to him they smelt cannabis and challenged him, Philip Adams, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court.

Grewal admitted he had been smoking the drug before he left home and that there was a small cannabis cigarette in his car.

A search then revealed a martial arts rice flail under the driver's seat while Grewal was found to have around 2,000 in 20 notes on him.

He was taken to Weetwood Police Station where he was evasive and reluctant to remove his underwear for a strip search.

Eventually he did so and 12 grip-sealed bags were discovered. They contained 32.9 grammes of cocaine which was 20 per cent pure with an estimated street value of 1,300.

When Grewal's home in Wellhouse Gardens, Gledhow, Leeds, was searched a bag containing cash was found in his wardrobe while a shoebox and a further bag containing cash were found in the attic.

The total amount seized was 31,721.40 which was yesterday confiscated as his benefit from crime.

Mr Adams said Grewal, who tested positive at the police station for cocaine and opiates, claimed he was holding the money for others and that it was essentially holiday money.

Graham Parkin, for Grewal, told the court he now accepted that was his profits from buying drugs for a circle of friends. He said Grewal, a chef, had been earning around 17,000 gross a year which he used to support his wife and two children while living in his parents' home and it enabled him to buy cocaine for himself.

He and his friends took it in turn to buy for their social circle but then he lost his job. That led to problems with his self-esteem as he was meant to be head of the household.

He volunteered to buy the drugs regularly for his friends because he found by doing so in bulk he was getting it cheaper, covering his own supply and giving him a profit.

Mr Parkin said the case was unusual because Grewal hoarded the money. He did not have a drug dealer's lifestyle.

Grewal, 36, admitted possessing cocaine with intent to supply, possessing criminal property, cannabis and an offensive weapon.

Recorder of Leeds, Judge Peter Collier QC, said he was effectively a low level retailer to a group of middle class people but that not mean a difference in sentence. "There is no difference in the evil that cocaine both is and does."