Bodmin drug dealer threw crack cocaine out the window when police turned up

A drug dealer threw a bag of crack cocaine out the window when officers turned up at his home to arrest him. William Counter was first arrested in September last year following a police raid on a property in Bodmin. All the paraphernalia of drug dealing were found, including cannabis, scales, mobile phones and £2,900 in cash.

A sentencing hearing at Truro Crown Court today (Monday, January 13) heard how the four people present were taken away. Counter, 28, from Rock Lane in Bodmin, was bailed to attend a police interview but failed to turn up.

As a result, officers from Devon and Cornwall Police went to his address again – the same one which had been raided a few weeks earlier – and saw Counter throw a blue package out of the first-floor window as they approached the property. Counter was arrested again and the blue package was found to contain 14g of crack cocaine.

In interviews, he denied throwing the bag of drugs out of the window or being involved in the drug trade at all and the supply of class A and B drugs. The court was told that Counter was interviewed a second time by police, and he then admitted possession of the class A drug, saying he did throw it out the window as he didn’t want to be in possession as police were about to come into his home.

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He later pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of cannabis, one count of supply of cannabis, one count of possession of class A drugs and another of supply of class A drugs. The court heard how Counter has five previous convictions for nine offences including for the supply of heroin and other drug offences relating to his own addiction.

Ryan Murray, defending, said Counter was a young man who had not had the most pleasant experience in prison whilst on remand and whose involvement in the drug world had been that of a lesser role.

He said Counter had been exposed to drugs from a young age as his mother was an addict and he was taken into the care system. He became an addict himself and fell prey to dangerous dealers who enlisted him as a runner and supplier as a way for him to pay off his drug debts to them.

Mr Murray said: “He has felt the full force of the weapons these people have. He has lost much of the functions of his right hand as a result. He knows the score that people who buy drugs get pulled into that world.

“When he has stability he can be productive and can keep away from substances. The penny has dropped in his case. He told me that being in prison had been the best thing that happened to him as it allowed him to sort his life out, or he would have ended up as another statistic, either on drugs or dead.”

Mr Murray said there were several mitigating factors in Counter’s defence, including his minor role in the drug trade, his involvement due to pressure from others, his own addiction to the drugs he was supplying as well as genuine heartfelt remorse, his “determination to address his offending behaviour” and a deprived background.

His Honour Judge Simon Carr said sadly Counter had already run out of chances when he had been given a suspended sentence for the supply of class A drugs in the past but had not used that chance to turn his life around.

Sentencing him to two years in prison, Judge Carr told Counter: “Drug dealers prey on people like you who have to pay off drug debts by supplying drugs to others at the bottom of the chain. I note your lesser role in this but you have done this before when you supplied class A drugs.

“At the time it was deemed exceptional and you were given a community treatment to address your problems. It would have been your last chance but you fell back into this world afterwards and continued to supply drugs and the misery they inflict on others.”

Counter will serve 40 per cent of his sentence before being released on licence for a year.

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