Police swoop revealed drugs dealing and stashes of cash

Despite that, Warwick Crown Court was told Parchment claimed he was selling cannabis to pay off a £1,200 debt to the dealer who supplied him.

And jailing Parchment for ten months, Judge Marten Coates also order-ed £12,990 to be confiscated from him under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Parchment, 26, of Spa View, Whitnash, had pleaded guilty at the court to possessing skunk cannabis in June with intent to supply it.

Vicki Lofrese, prosecuting, said the police raided Parchment’s home, where he lived with his girlfriend, at 7am.

From the home and from his car parked outside, police recovered 395.7 grams of skunk cannabis worth about £3,000.

In the house they found scales, a measuring cup, £10,060 in a bag under a kitchen cabinet and £2,930 in a bedside drawer.

When the police first went in Parchment’s girlfriend said that any cash they found was his, but she later tried to say it was her savings or joint savings towards a holiday.

Phones were also seized and revealed a number of people had been calling Parchment or his girlfriend, although he claimed he did not know who they were.

“The prosecution say he was dealing on a low-level but commercial basis,” said Miss Lofrese.

“He says he had received it from his dealer as a custodian, which is not accepted by the Crown. We say he had received it to sell it on,” she added.

John Edwards, defending, said: “I recognise that this offence passes the custody threshold, small scale retail supply to acquaintances.

“He abandons what he said to the author of the pre-sentence report and what he said in interview.

“He was in debt to the tune of £1,200 to a dealer of whom he was in fear, and the stock of drugs was earmarked for sale to repay that.”

Asking for the sentence to be suspended, Mr Edwards added that the day before the raid Parchment had got a job as a delivery driver with earning up to £400 a week, from which he paid £50 a week to help the mothers of his two children.

But Judge Christopher Hodson said: “Those who deal commercially in can-nabis sales commit a serious offence. Given the amounts involved and the money involved, I cannot suspend that sentence.”