A DEALER is back behind bars after being caught with almost £15,000 worth of cocaine whilst out on licence from a previous Class A drug dealing sentence.
Daniel Summers, 34, of Chinchilla Road, Southend, was pulled over on Shoebury Road on December 18, Basildon Crown Court heard on Tuesday (March 3).
Police found a lump of cocaine the size of a baseball in the rear passenger footwell of the rented white Mercedes.
They found two further packages of drugs elsewhere in the car.
Summers was behind the wheel and his associate William Innes was in the passenger seat.
The pair had three mobile phones between them and refused to give police the pin numbers for any of them.
The drugs in the car added up to 147 grams, with a street value of £14,700, said prosecutor Holly Twist.
When Summers was searched, police found the key to a room in a Rayleigh Premier Inn, which he had booked earlier that day. In that room, officers found a fourth mobile phone hidden under a bag of extra pillows.
Essex Police then raided Summers' home and found drug-dealing paraphernalia hidden down the side of a wardrobe, including deal bags, gloves, spoons and a wash bag containing remnants of white powder.
Innes, 33, of no fixed abode, was jailed for four years at Basildon Crown Court last month - but Summers did not appear until Tuesday.
The court heard he had 26 previous convictions - most notably, a 2024 Class A drug trafficking conviction for which he received a 32-month prison sentence.
He was on licence from that offence when he committed the new one and was recalled to prison, so appeared on court on Tuesday via video link.
Defence barrister Ellie Horan said her client, upon his release from the last sentence, had tried to join the army but been rejected due to his criminal record.
"From Mr Summers' perspective, whether rightly or wrongly, he had anticipated being able to start in the military," she said.
"When that was declined, it caused his mental health to take a significant spiral downwards."
Working as a bathroom fitter, she said, he relapsed into drug use and "fell into the offending as a means to earn extra money."
"Mr Summers has stressed his remorse for the offending," she said. "He has made it clear to me, both in writing and in conference, that he wants to make sure he leaves prison rehabilitated to ensure he does not fall back into the same ways."
Judge Shane Collery KC found the volume of drugs and the fact Summers had shelled out cash for a hotel room and rental car for use in the drug dealing showed he played a significant role with the expectation of significant financial benefit.
He had read a collection of positive character references, he said, "But the reality was that you were living something of a double life. To everybody else, you appeared to be a good guy... but at the tame time, you were continuing to offend."
He sentenced Summers to 35 months.
Detective Sergeant Leo Fordham, of Essex Police's serious and organised crime unit, said: “The drugs located in this car were meant for the streets of south Essex and to cause harm in our communities.
“The serious and organised crime unit works incredibly hard across the force to tackle drug supply in all its forms. We know the issues caused by illicit drug supply we’ll continue to disrupt and dismantle crime groups which seek to harm our neighbourhoods.”
Both men face further proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
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