OAP compost heroin dealer jailed

Griffith Mortimer Davies's evidence did not convince the jury

A pensioner has been jailed for two years for dealing heroin from his back garden to supplement his pension.

Griffith Mortimer Davies, 70, denied selling heroin found in a tin in a compost heap at his Swansea home.

His barrister at Swansea Crown Court asked for him to be spared jail, saying his client would lose his home.

Sentencing Davies, Judge Keith Thomas said: "Heroin in our communities is perhaps the most serious problem that we have to face in today's life."

Davies, of Penlan, was found guilty by a jury of possession with intent to supply at a trial earlier this month.

The court heard police raided his home and found a circular tin containing 18 heroin "wraps,'' the Class A drug wrapped in foil, in his compost heap.

'Gambling'

Davies, who wore a dinner suit and a black bow tie when he gave his evidence, denied the charge

He claimed he was looking after the tin for someone else and had had no idea what was inside it, but he refused to identify who the tin belonged to.

At the sentencing, Davies' barrister Ian Wright said an immediate prison sentence would have serious consequences.

He asked the judge to give his client a suspended sentence because of the effect prison would have on a man of his age.

Judge Thomas said he was convinced Davies began dealing in the drug to fund his gambling habits.