Warwick drug dealer caught and jailed after flipping his car onto its side as he tried to escape from police

A Warwick man who continued dealing in cocaine after he had been arrested and bailed, flipped his car onto its side as he tried to escape from the police.

And after Jordan Marshall was arrested as he was climbing out of the passenger door, officers found cash and a number of wraps of the drug in the central console.

Marshall (26) of Longfellow Avenue, Warwick, pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to two charges of possessing cocaine with intent to supply it.

He also admitted dangerous driving and having no licence or insurance, and was jailed for a total of seven years.

Prosecutor John O’Higgins said that in March 2018 the police went to an address in Hardwick Field Lane, Warwick, where Marshall and his partner were living at the time.

He handed officers a JD Sports bag which in which they found teaspoons with traces of cocaine on them and a container with just over 46 grams of cocaine in it.

His partner, who was also there, had £800 in cash on her, and a further £171 was also found in the house.

Marshall ‘remained silent’ when he was interviewed, and after being released on bail he pleaded not guilty in November last year to possessing the drug with intent to supply it.

Then on May 12 this year a Ford Focus being driven by Marshall near Warwick Technology Park came to the attention of the police because it had cloned number plates.

But when officers indicated for him to stop, Marshall reversed round the police vehicle and sped of along Gallows Hill and onto Banbury Road.

He then attempted to overtake another vehicle, but the Focus flipped onto its side, hitting a Fiat 500.

When the officers arrived they saw the car on its side and Marshall climbing out of the passenger door, and he struggled as he was then arrested.

He admitted that there were ‘a few bags of cocaine’ in the central console, but made no reply when he was asked: “Are you dealing again?”

In the car the police found 14 wraps of cocaine and £280 in cash, which Judge Anthony Potter ordered to be forfeited, together with the £971 from his first arrest, under the Misuse of Drugs Act.

Darron Whitehead, defending, said that in 2018 Marshall and his partner were heavy users of cocaine, and he accepted possession with intent to supply on the basis that the drug was being stored at their property.

“Offence two is different. He has been caught in a vehicle alone with 14 wraps of cocaine which it was his intention to sell, and he panicked on detection.

“We accept offence two is aggravated by him being on bail for offence one, and he has been realistic enough to accept that custody is inevitable.”

Marshall was jailed for two-and-a-half years for the first drugs offence, with a consecutive sentence of four-and-a-half years for the second one, and was banned from driving for eight-and-a-half years.

Judge Potter told him: “I have to deal with you for your involvement in the pernicious trade of supplying class A drugs to others, something that causes untold misery.

“The first matter relates to a search at your home address in Warwick, and you effectively handed to the police a ready-made dealing kit.

“That was sent to court in 2020, and you entered not guilty pleas, and you continued with those pleas at a pre-trial review.

“You were arrested in the interim for offences you committed on the 12th of May.

“You were driving a Focus on cloned registration plates, and I am quite satisfied you did that so it was harder to trace you because you were travelling with a desire to supply drugs.

“It is plainly an aggravating matter that you were on bail for one drugs offence when you committed another. Yours is going to be a lengthy sentence.”