'Family man' jailed over Rushden drug dealing

A 'family man' was who was caught with a stash of class A drugs in his kitchen has been locked up.

Zeeshan Sultan, 33, was arrested after a raid at his home in Lancaster Gardens, between Rushden and Wymington, in 2019.

Police found heroin and cocaine worth at least £1,500 hidden in a cupboard as well as cash, scales and a diary with names and values of money.

At Northampton Crown Court on Wednesday (June 8) his barrister urged Recorder Stuart Sprawson to suspend any prison sentence so Sultan could carry on providing care for his children and wife.

But, jailing him for 30 months, Recorder Sprawson told Sultan: "Those that deal class A drugs can only expect the courts to impose an immediate prison sentence unless in exceptional circumstances."

Prosecuting, Kaja Reiff-Musgrove said officers searched Sultan's home at about 9.45am on December 12 and found drugs and a number of items associated with drug dealing.

In a zip-up bag on the top shelf of a kitchen cupboard were 15 wraps of powder, later found to be 3.21g of cocaine.

Scales were found with containers of small amounts of cash and a single wrap of heroin. A diary with names and values of cash in was also found as well as a pile of lottery tickets, used to wrap drugs, and a tub containing £300 in cash.

A burner phone was also found with texts relating to cocaine.

In another cupboard were further packets containing drugs. One had 29 wraps of heroin with others having more than 100 wraps of cocaine combined. Recorder Sprawson said police recovered about 250 wraps of drugs.

In total officers recovered 3.1g of heroin and 10.87g of cocaine, worth at least £1,500 on the streets. They also found a curved knife and a knuckleduster.

Ms Reiff-Musgrove said: "This is clearly dealing...the defendant had a significant role."

Sultan was on a suspended sentence at the time after being convicted of driving whilst disqualified just three months before his arrest.

He later admitted two charges of possession of class A drugs with intent to supply

Mitigating, Ms Subagarey said Sultan was a family man who provides care for his relatives and has had the offences hanging over him for some time.

She said: "It's clear that all of his family members rely very heavily on him...it would be sentencing the entire family (if he was jailed)."

Ms Pathmanathan added that Sultan's sentence could be reduced to a level which could be suspended so he could be rehabilitated in the community.

She said: "It's very safe to say he will not be before the courts again for these sort of offences."

But even with Sultan's credit for his guilty plea his sentence was only reduced to 30 months which could not be suspended as it is above two years.

Sultan will spend half of his sentence in custody before being released on licence.