A DEALER who used the home of a user as a base for running crack cocaine from London to the streets of Colchester exemplified the “depressing cycle” of county lines supply.

Farhaan Yuusuf, 20, was found to be carrying the “Wayne” county line phone in June.

The burner phone, used to send bulk advertising messages to about 90 users in Colchester, was the point of contact for a heroin and crack cocaine supply line running from Croydon to Essex.

Ipswich Crown Court heard police on patrol in Colchester town centre spotted Yuusuf walking into a quiet lane with three known class A drug users.

When he was searched, he was found to be carrying more than £500 in cash, the county line phone and a key for an empty house.

Officers searched the home and when the tenant returned, they realised he was a class A drugs user.

The court was told the exploitation of a user’s home by dealers is an “all to common feature” of such cases.

Officers also found a bundle of 37 wraps of crack cocaine in the house.

Yuusuf admitted two counts of being concerned in the supply of class A drugs and one count of handling criminal property.

Barry Gilbert, mitigating, said from Yuusuf’s perspective nothing would be achieved by sending him directly to prison.

He said his client had built up a drugs debt and was “pressed” into travelling to Colchester to hold the county line phone.

“They’ll keep doing it, the people who keep pressing them into doing it,” he said.

“The courts will keep locking them up, for longer and longer, no doubt. It’s a depressing chain that is going to carry on.”

Judge Emma Peters said: “I understand entirely Mr Gilbert’s point, that all we seem to do is go round and round in a cycle sending people like you to jail for being involved in this world.”

But she said her public duty “demands” she punish Yuusuf, of Hood Close, Croydon, by sending him straight to prison.

She added: “Hopefully that will make you and others think twice before engaging in this kind of trade, just a miserable trade, which causes destruction to all parts of society.”

Yuusuf was sentenced to 30 months in a young offender institution.

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