Community order for drug dealer caught with heroin and cocaine on M54
A drug addict has avoided jail after hiding dozens of cocaine and heroin wraps under a car bonnet.
Michelle Humphrey, aged 35, was sentenced after pleading guilty to possessing the drugs with intent to supply.
She was warned by a judge that if she didn’t commit to continuing her rehabilitation and comply with a community order he would re-sentence her personally.
Humphrey and Sajid Khan were in a Volkswagen Passat pulled over by police on September 15 last year.
The pair were stopped on the westbound carriageway of the M54, between junctions three for Albrighton and four for Shifnal, Shrewsbury Crown Court heard.
Officers searched the car on the hard shoulder, and finding nothing inside they opened the engine compartment.
There, hidden under insulation material, were two paper bags containing 71 wraps of cocaine and 14 of heroin.
Stuart Clarkson, prosecuting, said that there were 5.89 grams of cocaine and 1.77 grams of heroin, with a total street value of £840.
He said: “The police also found a telephone in the car indicative of drug dealing.”
He told the court that Humphrey worked as a dealer for 50-year-old Sajid Khan, and would be paid in drugs to fuel her addiction.
She had failed to attend court in May this year to be sentenced.
On Friday Humphrey, of Birdbrook Road in Birmingham, was sentenced to a community order lasting two years and a seven-week stay at the Willowdene rehabilitation centre.
She will have to carry out 35 days of rehabilitation activity and after completing her program at Willowdene will also have to do 140 days of unpaid work.
Judge Peter Barrie warned her that he could have sentenced her to three years in jail and that if she didn’t complete the program she would be sentenced “afresh”.
He said: “If you fail to stick it out at Willowdene or if you are found to have used any kind of illegal drug I will see that you are brought back before me if possible and I will remember why I imposed a community order.”
