Crook let off jail because 'it's cheaper'

A JUDGE let a drug dealer walk free, saying it was “cheaper” not to send him to prison.

The drug dealer was spared prison The drug dealer was spared prison

Joseph Gompertz, 59, peddled amphetamines and cannabis from his home, which he boasted was “open all hours” to users.

But after hearing he was a life-long amphetamine addict who had been  co-operative with police, Judge Roger Thomas QC took the unusual step of not locking him up. It would, he  said, be “cheaper for the rest of  us” if Gompertz was helped by a rehabilitation programme instead. Elizabeth Burton-Phillips, who founded the charity DrugFam after losing one of her twin sons to heroin and crack cocaine, queried whether rehab really was cheaper than prison.

“Some courses are very long,” she said. “I would be interested to see the figures.”

Gompertz, from Northern Moor, Manchester, admitted two counts of possessing class B drugs with intent and one of possessing class A drugs with intent at a Manchester Crown Court hearing earlier this month. Philip Dobson, prosecuting, said that when police called at Gompertz’s home the dealer told them straight away they would find drugs, also showing them the £500 he had made from sales. Defending, Philip Barnes said  Gompertz was determined to give up drugs. Sentencing him to a community order, Judge Thomas told Gompertz:

“It’s a fairly rare day I find myself not sending a drug dealer straight to prison, but this is an unusual case and an unusual character.

“There’s enough about you to make me think there could be something more constructive, and I don’t mind

saying, in these days of austerity, cheaper for the rest of us.”

The Judicial Communications Office declined to comment on what the judge said.

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