Cotswolds county lines drug dealer jailed for 28 months

Michael Smith was caught with 22,000 drugs sales messages on the county lines phone he used for dealing heroin and cocaine

A man caught with a "breath-taking" 22,000 phone messages arranging heroine and cocaine sales has been jailed.

Michael Smith, 22, from Winchcombe, pleaded guilty at Gloucester Crown Court on 8 April to supplying Class A drugs and possessing cannabis.

Judge Ian Lawrie QC rejected a submission that Smith, who is mourning the death of a brother, should have his sentence deferred.

He was sentenced to 28 months in prison for dealing at a "significant level".

Prosecutor Andrew Wilkins said Smith, of Binyon Road, was running a county drugs line in the Cotswolds.

"He had three phones which he used in succession and police found that 22,000 bulk messages had been sent out," he said.

"When he was detained he had 1.59g of crack cocaine on him. Some of the phone numbers he used were stored in various users' phones under variations of his name."

'Bulk text messages'

Michael Bignall, defending, said Smith had a previous criminal conviction for a commercial burglary and referred the court to two previous probation reports, one of which spoke "very highly" of him.

Mr Bignall argued that the judge should reduce the prison term to a level that could be suspended.

However the judge said the scale of Smith's offending meant he could not avoid immediate imprisonment.

"The sheer quantity of the bulk text messages on your phone shows you were dealing at a significant level," Judge Lawrie said.

"The sheer scale of the messages sent out from his phones is breath-taking."

The judge said there was no way he could bring down Smith's sentence to two years or below - the length at which suspended sentences are permitted.