A WESTON drug dealer who tried to throw his secret stash out of a window has been jailed after it was recovered by police, court reporter Ted Davenport writes.

Maximus Andrews was caught dealing heroin and cocaine twice in the space of seven months, first in Exeter and then at his home in Weston-super-Mare.

Andrews, 20, has two previous convictions for dealing and faced a sentence of seven years less credit for a plea under the three strikes and you’re out rule.

He claimed he was pressured into dealing by threats of violence and had been assaulted so violently in the past that he now suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. 

Andrews, of Sandford Road, Weston-super-Mare, admitted five counts of being concerned in or possession with intent to supply class A drugs and was jailed for the minimum term of 2,045, which is almost five years and eight months by Judge James Adkin at Exeter Crown Court.

He told him: “Because of your previous convictions, the sentence after a trial would be seven years unless there are exceptional circumstances. Neither your relative youth nor your diagnosis of PTSD can be considered exceptional.”

Mr Lee Bremridge, prosecuting, said police became suspicious of Andres after seeing him at a notorious drug dealing spot in Exeter on August 18 last year and finding him with a ‘graft’ phone which had been used to advertise and sell drugs to 60 contacts.

The messages dated back several days and one offered to sell both heroin and crack at a discount from the usual street rate of £10 a bag with one reading ‘on best both, three for 25’.

His home was raided on March 20 this year and police saw him throw a bag out of a window which contained a dealer’s kit of scales and bags and his personal supply of cannabis.

A search uncovered 27.15 grams of heroin, 4.05 grams of cocaine, and 4.8 grams of crack with a combined street value of around £3,600 and £2,855 cash in a shoe box. Some of the drugs were hidden in a fake coke tin.

Miss Holly Gilbery, defending, said Andrews was pressured into dealing by a gang that beat him up so severely that he was unable to work for a time and developed PTSD.

She said he had been just 17 and 18 and a care leaver when he received his two previous convictions.

She said he was in real fear when he started dealing again in March and was trying to pay off a debt.