Late-night Leeds cemetery drug deal for £10,000 of cannabis spotted by passing police
A drug deal for £10,000 worth of cannabis was uncovered as patrolling police happened to spot two men in a darkened cemetery.
Officers moved in when they saw the pair meet for the shady late-night exchange among the graves in St Stephen’s Church in Kirkstall.
Ashton Wright had travelled with his family from Scotland and left them in a car nearby while he went to buy the vacuum-packed drugs that weighed almost a kilogramme.
The 34-year-old appeared at Leeds Crown Court where he admitted being concerned in the supply of cannabis.
The court heard that officers had been patrolling the area in an unmarked police car at around 10pm on January 8 this year.
They saw Wright and another man in the Park Mount cemetery, with the second man carrying a bag containing the drugs.
Weighing 987 grammes, it was full of cannabis bud, prosecutor Graham O’Sullivan told the court.
Experts said it was worth around £3,500 wholesale, and £10,000 if divided into street deals.
Officers found £3,342 in bundles of cash in Wright’s pocket. His wife and children were in a car parked near the cemetery.
Wright, of Hall Road, Ecclefechan, Lockerbie, gave a no-comment interview at the police station.
He later provided a basis of plea that it was a joint purchase between him and his friends and was not for financial gain. This was accepted by the Crown.
Wright has 12 previous convictions for 17 offences, including burglaries for which he was jailed.
No mitigation was offered by his barrister after Judge Tahir Khan KC told him he would not send Wright to prison.
Instead, he gave him a six-month sentence, suspended for 12 months, and 200 hours of unpaid work to complete. The money he had on him during his arrest has been donated to a charity of the judge’s choice.
Judge Khan told Wright: “You had the good sense to plead guilty and that makes all the difference.
“Had you had a trial, I would have been sending you to prison. Any involvement in controlled drugs is always going to be serious.”
The court heard that the second man in the cemetery was sentenced to 23 months’ jail in March of this year.
He was already on a suspended sentence order for the production of cannabis at the time of the cemetery arrest.