Hartlepool pill pedlar caught with hundreds of sedatives during search at Middlesbrough police station
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Amy Cawley, 28, was found with dozens of benzodiazepine-like sedative tablets hidden about her person when she was taken to Middlesbrough Police Station after being arrested for an unrelated incident.
Officers carried out a strip search and found over 1,000 pills on her body and hidden in her bra after police initially found several more in her handbag.
She also disposed of some down a toilet which dissolved.
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Hide AdPolice found more of the two makes of tablets inside a shoebox when they went back to the address in Thackeray Road, Hartlepool, where she was arrested in August 2020.
Jonathan Gittins, prosecuting at Teesside Crown Court, said a police drugs expert valued the pills totalling 1500 at just over £1,500.
More than £300 was also found on Cawley. Mr Gittens added: “Her mobile phone was downloaded and the content reviewed which identified a number of text messages indicative of street dealing throughout July and August.”
Cawley, of Northgate, Hartlepool, pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing class C drugs with intent to supply.
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Hide AdIn her favour, the court heard she had no similar previous convictions and had personal difficulties including mental health issues and a drug habit.
The probation service said she posed a low risk of reoffending.
The Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Paul Watson, told Cawley it was a substantial quantity of pills.
He sentenced her to six months in prison suspended for 18 months, together with a drug treatment requirement and 18 rehabilitation activity days.