A GAMBLING addict tried to meet his mounting debts by agreeing to play a part helping to prepare cocaine for supply further down the chain.

For up to three months last year Christopher Shaw cut batches of high purity cocaine at a friend’s allotment, from where it was then collected.

Durham Crown Court heard he made up to £300 a week, to help relieve his debts, until police, “came calling”, on November 7.

Officers found bundles of mainly £20 bank notes, totalling £5,890, in a box in a bedroom at his home in Consett, County Durham.

In a follow up visit, eight separate packages, containing 150 grams of highly pure cocaine, were recovered from a building on the allotment site.

Liam O’Brien, prosecuting, said, if broken down into street sale terms, the seized drugs had a potential value of £17,830.

When interviewed, Shaw said he was delivered cocaine in bulk and was paid to break it down into smaller quantities, “on the instruction of others”, to be collected weekly from the allotment plot.

He told police most of the recovered money was being held, for, “whoever he was acting on behalf of”, although he claimed £2,000 was his, “from legitimate sources”.

Mr O’Brien said: “That last aspect is not accepted by the Crown.”

It will form part of Proceeds of Crime investigations prior to a confiscation hearing later in the year.

Twenty-nine-year-old Shaw, of Redmire Drive, admitting possessing the class A drug with intent to supply, supplying it, and possessing criminal property, at a recent hearing.

His counsel, David Comb, told today’s (Friday April 10) sentencing hearing: “In about August or September last year it must have felt to Christopher Shaw that things were about as difficult as they could be, as he juggled work and family life with trying to cope with an addiction, in his case to gambling, both online and at bookmakers’ shops.

“He took the worst decision of his life by far to try to deal with that situation by agreeing to do what he did with the drugs to repay the gambling debts.

“It’s left him in a position where he’s facing imprisonment, but also with personal difficulties arising from his arrest,” added Mr Comb, who presented four character testimonials on Shaw’s behalf, to the court.

Jailing him for two years and eight months, Recorder Eric Elliott told the defendant: “Prior to August last year, there’s no question about it, you were hard-working, helpful and well-respected.

“But, due to your addiction to gambling, you found your life in a dark place and agreed to help a ‘Mr Big’ by assisting in the cutting of cocaine.”

Recorder Elliott ordered forfeiture and destruction of the seized drugs and set a Proceeds of Crime timetable to conclude with a confiscation hearing later in the year.