A drug dealer caught peddling crack cocaine in Piccadilly Gardens has been banned from the city to avoid ‘temptation’. Basha Norie, 23, was stopped by police in the gardens and found with £100 worth of the class A drug.
He has now been jailed and banned from entering the city centre when he is released. Prosecutors argued that Norie travelled into the city in order to deal drugs.
His lawyer did not challenge the banning order and Norie believes it will ‘help him moving forward’, Manchester Crown Court heard. “You recognise that coming to Manchester city centre is in a sense a temptation to you to deal in drugs,” Judge Nicholas Dean KC told him.
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“Sensibly, you are prepared to submit to a criminal behaviour order. You are not a sophisticated dealer in any way, shape or form.
“You are prohibited from entering Manchester city centre, in particular of course it prevents you from going into areas of Manchester city centre where dealing is sadly prevalent.” Prosecuting, Tobias Collins said that Norie was stopped by police in Piccadilly Gardens on November 20 last year, after he was ‘wanted’ by police for an alleged breach of bail.
He was searched and was found in possession of 10 wraps of crack cocaine, said to be worth £100 in total.
A mobile phone seized from him was found to have evidence of drug dealing messages, the court heard. Norie, who has previous for dealing in cannabis, has remained in custody ever since. Earlier today, (June 5), he was sentenced to two years in prison.
Prosecutors applied for a criminal behaviour order, which will come into effect after he is released and will last for two years. Defending, Adrian Palmer said he did not oppose the order.
He said of Norie: “He feels that by going into that area, he puts himself in a position, perhaps when he is released, of falling back into his old ways. That is not what he wants to do. He thinks it will help him, moving forward.”
Mr Palmer said that Norie, of Chapman Street, Gorton, was himself addicted to drugs at the time, but that he is now clean following a spell on a detox wing while behind bars.
