Bungling drug dealer jailed for five years

A bungling drug dealer caught when Royal Mail staff smelled cannabis from a parcel has been jailed for five years.

More than £8,000 worth of crack cocaine and herbal cannabis valued at around £100 were found after the package was searched in Wolverhampton.

It had been mailed by recorded delivery to Aberdeen by Gervin Chambers, who used his own address as that of the sender, a judge heard.

The parcel was intercepted at the Sun Street mail centre.

Police discovered it had been dropped off by a mystery man for delivery at the Post Office in Bargate Drive, Whitmore Reans, in June last year.

The sender's details on the back gave Chambers' own address in nearby Glentworth Gardens, and the 34-year-old even made a number of phonecalls to Royal Mail to complain the parcel had not been delivered to the hairdressers in Aberdeen where he had a contact, said prosecutor Mr John Evans yesterday.

Chambers was arrested on July 6 and denied having any connection to the package, but a sample of his handwriting appeared to match details written on it.

A jury took just half an hour to convict him of two charges of attempting to supply drugs at an earlier hearing.

Mr Jon Roe, defending, said yesterday: "He was being paid £500 for selling these drugs. He was in financial difficulties and wanted the cash.

"This was not to fund a lavish lifestyle because he owes a lot of money. He was acting like a courier transporting the drugs between two locations."

Judge Martin Walsh jailed Chambers, who had been remanded on bail following his conviction by the jury, and told him: "Anybody involved in the supply of Class A drugs must expect a lengthy term in prison.

"Drugs like those blight lives and devastate families and communities."