A prolific Nottingham criminal was caught with wraps of cocaine when he attacked two police officers in the city centre. Nottingham Crown Court was told how during the melee in Lower Parliament Street drunk Dean Finlayson racially abused one of the victims.
The 42-year-old, of Broxtowe, was jailed in March last year for being part of a three-strong gang who attacked an Alfreton Road pub landlord and threatened to burn down his pub. And a judge said had these fresh matters been dealt with at that time he would have handed him more prison time.
But as they have taken so long to come to court, he instead said the fairest way of dealing with the defendant, who has 30 previous court appearances on his record, now was to hand him a suspended sentence. Judge Philip Head said: “If all of these matters had been dealt with at the same time (in March 2024) there is no doubt you would have got a longer sentence.
“It is clear from your record that you have a long-standing and serious drug addiction. That explains much of the dishonesty matters which appear on your record. In January and then April, 2022, you were stopped by the police in possession of drugs and you were released under investigation.
“You then committed these offences in February 2023 when you were very drunk and managed to draw attention to yourself by kicking the wing mirror of a police car.
“Whe the police got involved you attacked them and racially abused one of them. There was then a search and you had 17 wraps of crack cocaine.”
In March last year, Finlayson, of Bells Lane, was the final member of a gang that was each sent to prison for the pub attack. It saw him and two other men – Lee Smith, 51, of Brandreth Avenue, St Ann’s and Steven McMahon, 50, of Gregory Boulevard, Radford – fight with bar staff using crutches and sticks outside The Falcon on July 2, 2022.
The defendant’s later offences happened in Lower Parliament Street on February 24, 2023. Devni Kitulagoda, prosecuting, said Finlayson kicked the police car wing mirror and then began to try and fight two officers who were kicked and called for back-up as the defendant was PAVA sprayed to calm him down.
The prosecutor said Finlayson made a racial slur to one of the police officers “kicked out and scratched him, refusing to be co-operative”. “17 wraps of crack cocaine were in his pocket and a small amount of cannabis,” the prosecutor said.
“His home was searched and there were scales and messages on his phone that showed he had been selling. He told police in an interview he amassed a £500 drug debt and was pressured to sell to pay that off.”
Finlayson pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply crack cocaine, possession of cannabis and two counts of assaulting an emergency worker. He has more than 60 offences on his record.
Annabel Lenton, mitigating, said her client was released from his last prison term in September 2024 and has been mainly drug free since that time. She said: “This is the most sober he has found himself.”
Judge Head handed the defendant a 20-month term, suspended for two years, with a 31-day programme requirement and 140 hours unpaid work. He also ordered him to pay £100 to both of the police officers he assaulted.