Jail for Bicester area drug dealer caught with heroin and cocaine

Aila Harries, 34, was already aware of the risks of dealing hard drugs, having swerved a spell in prison in 2019.

But it failed to deter her from getting involved in the trade four years later; forced into the industry by a crippling £650-a-day drug habit.

READ MORE: Find all our stories from Oxford's courts

Prosecutor Alice Aubrey-Fletcher told Oxford Crown Court this week that police officers raided Harries’ mobile home at a caravan park in Boarstall, near Bicester, on August 22.

Inside, they seized 79g of cocaine and 43g of heroin. In a study, they found £50 in cash and a set of scales containing traces of brown and white powder – with the inference that it was heroin and cocaine residue.

Two phones were seized from the property. Only one of them was passcode-protected and, on the other, police officers discovered messages pointing to Harries being involved in supplying drugs.

Also contained on the phone was a photograph of a large amount of cash and photographs of what appeared to be drugs being weighed on the set of scales found in the defendant’s mobile home.

Ms Aubrey-Fletcher said the drugs had been given a street value of £12,000.

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Harries, also known as Harris, of Oaksview Park, Boarstall, pleaded guilty when she appeared before the magistrates’ court a day after the raid to two charges of possession with intent to supply class A drugs.

Mitigating, George Joseph said that, sadly, addiction and drug use was ‘part and parcel’ of his client’s upbringing.

She had managed to abstain while working with her father but had slid back into addiction recently, reportedly spending £650-a-day on her habit.

Harries ‘saw the opportunity to change’, Mr Joseph said, and asked the judge to test his client’s commitment to addressing her addiction by deferring sentence for a few months.

The judge, Recorder Andrew Mcloughlin, declined. Sending her to prison for three years and four months, he said: “Those who deal in drugs are not only creating issues by committing criminal offences.

“But they are also, by selling drugs, often making those who want the drugs commit further criminal offences because they simply cannot afford the drugs they wish to purchase.

The case was heard at Oxford Crown Court, pictured Picture: Ed Nix (Image: Ed Nix)

“It is a downward spiral for all concerned.

"In your case, one would have thought there would have been some insight into what you were doing.

“One, because you’d already been caught doing it four years previously. But, secondly, because of the impact it’s had on your own personal life.”