Cabbie Is Locked Up
4th September 2008
A drug-dealing taxi driver caught with 934 Ecstasy tablets, £310,000 worth of amphetamine and more than a kilo of cannabis, has been jailed.
Leslie Louth, 44, told police he thought he would go to prison for 20 years.
Yesterday, he received a fraction of that term as a judge accepted he stored and transported the narcotics to pay off debts.
He was stopped in his private hire car on Hemlington Hall Road, Middlesbrough at 2.40pm on April 9. Officers found almost 16kg of amphetamine, Teesside Crown Court heard. Police believed the high-purity drugs would be “bulked out” and could have a value of £310,000.
Large quantities of drugs were found in two Middlesbrough addresses linked to Louth. In a garage on Chervil Court, police found several kilos of cutting agents, six bars of cannabis weighing 1.48kg and worth £6,334, along with bags and trays with traces of amphetamine, gloves and chopping boards.
In the bedroom, they discovered 934 Ecstasy tablets, all worth £4,670. Officers also found 391g of glucose, a hold-all with traces of Ecstasy and £510 cash. At a home on Aberdare Road, Grangetown, scales carrying amphetamine powder were uncovered.
Louth, of Aberdare Road, admitted possessing Class A, B and C drugs with intent to supply. He had no previous convictions.
Robert Mochrie, defending, said the previously anti-drugs dad was “mortified”, remorseful and anxious about causing grief to his family.
Louth fell into using cocaine after a marriage break-up: “The people who supplied him had a grip on him and effectively gave him the ultimatum - look after these drugs and we will reduce the debt, or face the consequences.
“He started out as being a warehouseman. This then developed into physically transporting drugs around the area. In return for this, his debt was knocked off bit by bit.”
Louth, whose partner stood by him in court, wrote a letter to Judge Peter Armstrong and had a character reference from an ex-colleague at Corus. The judge said it was sad to see him in the dock.
He accepted there was genuine remorse, it was out of character and Louth might never see the courts again. He jailed him for four years, including 145 days already served.
Source; gazettelive.co.uk; Middlesbrough Evening Gazette
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