Jail for drug dealers caught with £4k-worth of heroin and crack in Morrison's car park

Officers managed to box in Asim Akram’s Honda Insight, giving the driver no means of escape. His passenger, Ibrar Hussain, fled on foot – but was swiftly caught.

Prosecutor Cathy Olliver told Oxford Crown Court that the men had been tailed by officers in unmarked cars on May 18 following reports they were involved in supplying drugs.

The detectives called for back-up and two marked police units swooped while Akram’s Honda was at the Morrison’s car park in Banbury. He tried to get away, smashing into the wing mirror on one of the panda cars before crashing into a shopping trolley parking bay.

Inside the vehicle, police found a total of 32g of cocaine and heroin worth approximately £4,000 on the street or £2,400 on the wholesale market. The high weights into which the drugs were packaged pointed to Akram and Hussain selling to street dealers rather than directly to addicts.

The court heard it was 37-year-old Akram’s fourth conviction for selling drugs, meaning the judge would have to impose a mandatory minimum sentence. Last year, he was released early from a seven-and-a-half year sentence for wounding – but swiftly returned to his old ways.

Hussain, 41, had 43 offences on his record – many for burglary – and had one previous conviction for dealing.

Judge Michael Gledhill QC jailed Akram for five-and-a-half years, imposing the mandatory minimum sentence for a ‘third strike’ dealer, while Hussain received three years and four months’ imprisonment.

He told the men: “You were followed by a police vehicle who had reasonable suspicion that you were both involved in supply of drugs and as it turned out that reasonable suspicion was 100 per cent accurate.”

Turning to Akram, who claimed he’d taken cocaine to deal with the pain from crippling arthritis, Judge Gledhill said: “The fact of the matter is that although you may have taken cocaine to alleviate your pain that is totally unnecessary, bearing in mind the very large number of drugs you are currently prescribed to do just that.

“What you were doing was nothing to do with alleviating your pain it was to earn easy money which no doubt you’d have gone on to spend on drugs.”

Ibrar Hussain Picture: THAMES VALLEY POLICE

Ibrar Hussain's mugshot Picture: THAMES VALLEY POLICE

Patricia Lloyd, for Akram, said her client had taken powder cocaine for ‘many years’. He had suffered with rheumatoid arthritis from 18 and used the drug to alleviate his pain. He was currently waiting for knee and hip surgery.

Emma Hornby, for Hussain, said the dad-of-two hoped to bring his children and wife over from Pakistan. He had long struggled with drug abuse and the barrister asked the judge to consider putting her client on a drug rehabilitation programme.

Akram, of Phillimore Road, and of Hussain, of Foxton Road, both in Birmingham, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to possession with intent to supply class A drugs.

Judge Gledhill ruled the drugs, phones and around £900 found in the Honda glovebox forfeit. 

Asim Akram Picture: THAMES VALLEY POLICE

Asim Akram's custody image Picture: THAMES VALLEY POLICE

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