Scarborough drug dealer Anthony Saxon jailed for three years

Anthony Saxon, 41, was stopped by a plain-clothes officer in Edgehill but didn’t give himself up easily as he struggled with the constable and tried to pull away, York Crown Court heard.

He was eventually taken to ground and a subsequent strip search in custody revealed 14 wraps of crack cocaine worth £240 and 19 wraps of heroin with a street value of up to £665, said prosecutor Annie Richardson.

A search of his home unearthed further evidence - namely messages on his phone - of wider drug- dealing.

Saxon, of Ewart Street, Scarborough, admitted two counts of possessing a Class A drug with intent to supply and a separate offence of skipping bail which resulted in a bench warrant being issued for his arrest and his being remanded in custody pending sentence.

Ms Richardson said Saxon was stopped on August 14 last year when police found the drug wraps in a plastic bag.

She said that messages on Saxon’s phone showed he had been “taking orders for drugs before and at the time of his arrest”.

Saxon had 25 previous convictions for almost 70 offences, including one for supplying heroin which resulted in a four-year prison sentence in 2005.

He had a total of seven drug convictions to his name and others for theft.

Nick Peacock, for Saxon, said the father-of-two was an “acquisitive criminal…who offends to feed a long-standing drug addiction”.

He said Saxon had kicked the habit since his arrest after getting help from an addiction charity in Scarborough.

Judge Sean Morris, the Recorder of York, described Saxon’s criminal record as “appalling” and told the defendant: “This was your (drug) business and you were taking orders over the phone and peddling misery in the area where you lived.

"You’ve got to understand that drugs destroy lives.”

Jailing Saxon for three years, he told him he should have “learnt your lesson from your last lengthy prison sentence”.