A Birmingham drug dealer picked up in Oxford was acting under duress, the crown court heard.

Jay Slater, 19, was just 17-years-old when he was found in the city with crack cocaine and heroin last May.

Prosecutor Christopher Pembridge told Oxford Crown Court on Monday that the Crown Prosecution Service had accepted the teen’s basis of plea, in which he said he was exploited or groomed into dealing drugs.

Slater, of Goldcrest Croft, Solihull, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to possession with intent to supply class A drugs.

Judge Maria Lamb put the case back until October 8 and ordered a pre-sentence report.

She warned the defendant’s barrister: “Obviously, the custody threshold is well and truly passed so he mustn’t be under any misapprehension that a pre-sentence report gives any indication but he is young and he’s of previous good character.”

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