Self confessed drugs dealer jailed for 32 months at Derry Crown Court

A judge told a self confessed drugs dealer, whom he jailed for 32 months at Derry Crown Court, today that "I suspect the police in this division will be actively monitoring you when you are released and if they bring you back in front of me again for other drugs offences this sentence of 32 months will pale into insignificance given the reality of your record".

Judge Neil Rafferty K.C. issued the warning to Mark Kelly, 47, from Old School Field the Drumahoe area of the Waterside area of the city.

Kelly, who had twenty-seven previous convictions, eleven of them for drugs offences, pleaded guilty to committing three separate series of drugs offences involving either possessing or possessing with intent to supply cannabis on multiple dates between December 2021 and April of last year. The court was told he continued to re-offend while on bail or under a suspended sentence for similar offences.

He also pleaded guilty to driving without insurance and when his barrister asked Judge Rafferty not to impose a lengthy disqualification period, the judge replied "I don't think they need a driving licence on the landings of Maghaberry" and then banned him from driving for one year.

The court was told that Kelly's offending came to an end when members of a police mobile patrol stopped him as he drove his uninsured car along Brunswick Road in the Waterside area of the city last April.

The officers detected a strong smell of cannabis and inside the car they found 198 grams of cannabis. The police then went to Kelly's home where they found another 138 grams of cannabis.

Jailing Kelly, who has been a cannabis user for over 30 years, Judge Rafferty said Kelly had exhausted every opportunity given to him by the courts in the past.

"If you had been given a custodial sentence earlier it might have been better for you given the reality of the slamming of the prison door behind you", he said.