Drug dealer avoids prison after vowing to go straight

Last updated 09:56, Friday, 21 March 2008

A CONVICTED Workington drug dealer has avoided a prison sentence after convincing a judge he was determined to go straight.

Ryan Beattie, 26, of Clay Street, had been warned that because of previous convictions he was likely to be sent to jail.He pleaded guilty to selling £10-worth of heroin to a man in Whitehaven Market Place.

But at Carlisle Crown Court on Wednesday, he was given a suspended sentence after his barrister said he was determined to live without drugs.

“He is seeking to improve his life,” Tim Evans said. “He is altogether different from the person he was a year ago.”

The court heard that Beattie had two previous drugs convictions, including one for dealing in heroin which brought him a three-year prison sentence in 2005.

He was spotted by police selling a wrap to another man near the Wellington pub in Whitehaven.

He was given an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to do 120 hours unpaid community work. He was also put under probation supervision for 18 months and made to undergo a year’s drugs rehabilitation.

For the next two months he will be electronically tagged to make sure he abides by an 8pm to 7am curfew.

Judge Barbara Forrester said such a sentence was the stiffest she could impose without sending him to prison.