Cocaine dealer gets five years

A failed businessman from Wolverhampton who was caught in a police sting trying to bring cocaine worth £38,000 into the city in a BMW was jailed this afternoon.

Debt-ridden Jagdish Kumar, aged 32, and his 31-year-old cousin Pavinder Kumar drove to Leeds to pick up a kilo of the drug but headed straight into a team of undercover officers, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

The pair were unaware their supplier was being watched by West Yorkshire Police.

Jagdish Kumar was locked up for five years and four months while his cousin was given eight years by Judge Martin Walsh, who said the drugs would have caused untold harm.

The pair were watched by undercover officers as Leeds drug dealer Lee Duffield climbed into a sporty BMW DM they had hired in Bilston carrying a bag of drugs. He then emerged with a different bag, apparently containing cash payment from the pair.

The Kumars drove back from Leeds the same day and West Yorkshire Police, who pulled over the car in Birchills Street, Birchills, Walsall, at around 7.45pm on October 22, 2008.

Parvinder, of Callahan Drive, Oldbury, was convicted of possession of cocaine with intent to supply after a trial, while Jagdish, of Penn Road, Wolverhampton, pleaded guilty.

Mr Robert Cowley, for Jagdish Kumar, said he had tried and failed to run a bouncy castle and furniture business, and wanted to pay off his debts, adding: "He was not involved in this offence so he could lead the high life."

Judge Walsh told the men: "I'm unable to form a view as to who was the leading light in this criminal enterprise. You were effectively acting as couriers, travelling to the North East to collect drugs with a view to their eventual distribution through third parties.

"This was substantial couriering of substantial amounts of Class A drugs which would have been sold on the streets of the West Midlands causing untold damage."

Judge Walsh said anybody involved in drugs couriering would face "substantial sentences" of imprisonment.

Duffield, 30, was jailed for seven years.