Police officers found Class A drugs with a street value of more than £7,000 when they searched the bedroom of a man in Birkby.

Leeds Crown Court heard yesterday (Thurs) there was a safe in the attic bedroom used by Harass Chohan and inside 501 wraps of crack cocaine and 120 wraps of heroin were discovered.

That cocaine had a street value of £5,010, and two further separate wraps of cocaine worth around £940 were seized. The heroin had a street value of £1,200.

Alisha Kaye, prosecuting, told the court sets of scales, £862 in cash, two expensive Breitling watches and four mobile phones were seized during the search on April 20.

Chohan refused to give the PIN for the phones so they could not be analysed.

Andrew Dallas, representing Chohan, said because of dyslexia he had struggled at school and college but had eventually completed a course in public services but instead of the future he planned in his late teens he began mixing “with the wrong crowd.”

Leeds Crown Court
Leeds Crown Court

He got involved with drugs and started taking cocaine and fell into debt after he was spending up to £80 a day on the drug.

When his family sold his grandfather’s shop and he was no longer even working there but was unemployed he had time on his hands and it was suggested to him he pay off debts by selling drugs.

Mr Dallas said Chohan had not told his family about his debts and was operating from his bedroom at home.

“He is no wide boy in a city flat with a high lifestyle,” said Mr Dallas. “He is realistic enough to know the trouble he is in and the consequences for him.”

Chohan, 22 of King Cliffe Road, Birkby, Huddersfield admitted possessing heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply.

Jailing him for 40 months Recorder Simon Jackson QC said no doubt the reason he had not disclosed the PIN for his phones was that he feared it would show material which would have been incriminating for him.

He had been found with substantial quantities of Class A drugs and a prison sentence had to follow.