Jail for dealer caught with crack and heroin in McDonald's car park
A drug dealer who drove to a Shropshire town to sell class A drugs has been given a 30-month jail sentence.
Judge Peter Barrie said that John Atherton had driven from Liverpool to Whitchurch to peddle the drugs.
He accepted that Atherton had been under pressure from others but said he must have known what he was getting into,
Atherton, 47, of Clifton Road, Birkenhead, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to the possession of crack cocaine and heroin.
Sentencing Atherton to 30 months behind bars at Shrewsbury Justice Centre, Judge Barrie said he would have to serve half of it before being released on licence from prison.
"Drug dealing is a social scourge that ruins people's lives. It is big business although I recognise you were playing a small part in it," he said.
A count of possessing an offensive weapon was ordered to lie on file.
The court was told that police approached a car parked at the McDonald's car park next to the A41 in Whitchurch on July 9, 2019. The defendant, the driver of the car, admitted that he had drugs in his possession.
Police found 23 wraps of crack cocaine and three of heroin. They also found a mobile phone that indicated Atherton had been dealing drugs.
Mrs Debra White, for Atherton, said her client had both mental and physical health problems that meant he needed crutches to walk.
He had suffered a series of bereavement that had left him depressed .
"He was scared of those who were exploiting him and very vulnerable. They provided a car for him and told him to drive to Whitchurch. He thought that the drugs involved were cannabis and not class A drugs," Mrs White said.
"He had been under pressure from the group for about 12 months and had never succumbed before. But the intimidation had become too much."
She said after his arrest he had been visited in his flat and told that he owed the group for the drugs that had been seized. The men had since been arrested and were in prison.
