A Port Talbot drug dealer who blamed fellow residents of his YMCA hostel for the incriminating messages found on his own phone has been jailed for three years.
Leighton Burgess admitted a £600-a-month crack cocaine habit but denied dealing, a court heard — even as messages from his number turned up on the phones of known users.
The 38-year-old, of Talbot Road, came to the attention of officers in Port Talbot in April after police examined the phones of known drug users, according to South Wales Police.
Numbers linked to drug-supply messages were traced back to Burgess, who was arrested as he walked along the town’s Station Road on 25 April.
Swansea Crown Court heard he was carrying a Nokia phone using one of the numbers officers had already flagged.
When the device was examined, it held messages relating to the supply of cocaine, Valium and pregabalin, a prescription-only painkiller.
A search of his room at the Port Talbot YMCA turned up four more phones and two SIM cards.
In interview, Burgess said he spent around £600 a month on crack cocaine from a monthly benefits income of £1,100, but insisted others at the hostel had access to his phone and had sent the messages.
He had earlier admitted being concerned in the supply of cocaine, Valium and pregabalin, on the basis that he sold to a small circle of friends to fund his own addiction, with the group sometimes pooling money to buy at a better price.
The court heard Burgess had 16 previous convictions for 45 offences, including cannabis trafficking in 2010 and 2013 and possessing heroin with intent to supply in 2016.
Defending, Ian Ibrahim said his client had ADHD, left school at 14, and had described the YMCA as the best place he had ever lived. He said Burgess had “by any standards” a poor circle of friends.
Mr Ibrahim said the defendant had been devastated by the death of his mother, to whom he was particularly close, and that since being remanded in custody he had stayed drug-free and completed a number of courses.
Recorder Barry Clarke said a pre-sentence report described how living at the YMCA had brought some stability, but noted a “persistent pattern of drug misuse and associated offending” in Burgess’s life.
The recorder said rehabilitation in the community was not a realistic prospect, and warned Burgess that a third conviction for dealing Class A drugs would carry a starting point of seven years.
With a quarter discount for his guilty pleas, Burgess was jailed for three years. He will serve 40% of the sentence in custody before being released on licence.
Detective Inspector Richard George, of South Wales Police, said the case showed the drug trade did not pay.
“You can only begin to imagine the negative impact that the drugs which Leighton Burgess has sold have had on those who have consumed them, not to mention their friends, family and wider communities,” he said.
This case follows a string of recent drug-dealing sentences across the area, including a Port Talbot cocaine dealer jailed for five years after a Boxing Day crash, and a Neath man jailed for three years after cocaine and scales were found at his home.
