AN ARMY veteran caught with £11,000 worth of class A drugs he was plying to addicts has been jailed.

Devon Thompson, of Donnington Bridge Road, Oxford, had already admitted two counts of possession with intent to supply heroin and cocaine.

Oxford Crown Court heard at his sentencing hearing on Thursday how the 42-year old was first spotted by police acting suspiciously near his home address on September 18 last year.

Suspecting that drug dealing was taking place Thompson was approached and chased through the streets in the nearby area.

Despite his efforts to escape, jumping over garden fences, he was ultimately found by officers using a police dog, hiding in a garden.

Caught, he went on to reveal to police where he had tossed a number of wraps of drugs during his failed attempt to flee before later admitting the offences.

During their investigations police later discovered more drugs at a property he was associated with as well as in a nearby parked car he owned, as well as a set of digital scales.

The total value of the drugs that were found carried a street value of some £11,000, the court heard.

In mitigation, his defence barrister Peter Du Feu said that his client, who has served in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, had suffered post-traumatic stress disorder in the run-up to the offence.

He added that he had fallen into dealing, despite previously being jailed for similar offences in 2014, to pay for his mother to come to the UK from Jamaica for medical treatment.

Oxford Mail:

Judge Ian Pringle QC

Sentencing, Judge Ian Pringle QC said: “You know as well as anyone that the courts treat these sorts of offences in court very seriously.

“And I regard that you do come towards the upper end […] of significant role.”

Thompson was jailed for a total of 44 months for each offence to run concurrently with each other and must pay a victim surcharge.