Jailed cocaine dealer Matthew Wadworth sold drugs in Scarborough 'to pay for grandmother's funeral'

Matthew Wadforth, 28, was stopped by police while driving through Aberdeen Walk, Scarborough, where he was found with over 28g of white powder worth about £1,000.

He later claimed he had been dealing cocaine to pay for his recently departed grandmother’s £5,000 funeral, York Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor James Howard said that Wadforth was found with over 28g of cocaine which was split into “eighth-ounce deals” worth been £960 and £1,120 if sold on the street.

He said that Wadforth, a former bar worker, had been operating as a street dealer for about three weeks between September and November 2019.

Wadforth, who had a male passenger in the car, was arrested and charged with possessing cocaine with intent to supply following his arrest at about 11.30pm on November 16.

He was also charged with supplying cocaine between September 26 and the day of his arrest.

He admitted both charges and appeared for sentence on Thursday with his liberty hanging in the balance even though he had no record for drug offences.

Mr Howard said that police forensic officers found customer debt lists on Wadforth’s mobile phone.

At the time of the drug offences in Scarborough, Wadforth, of Marlborough Avenue, Hull, was subject to a two-year community order for battery.

Neil Cutte, for Wadforth, said his client felt he had to shoulder the burden for his grandmother’s £5,000 funeral “and that’s why he (started drug-dealing)”.

At the time of the drug enterprise, the father-of-three was working in a car garage in Hull.

Thereafter, he had stints at a supermarket and as an office worker in a car showroom.

His new partner was pregnant and Wadforth would miss the birth of his child if he were jailed.

Judge Sean Morris, the Recorder of York, told Wadforth: “I don’t know if your (late) grandmother was ever mugged, but lots of grandmothers have been mugged in order to get money to pay people to sell drugs.

"That’s why dealers go away (to prison).”

He added: “People have tragedies in their lives (but) their default position is not to become drug-dealers.

"Drugs are an absolute scourge on society.”

Jailing Wadforth for 18 months, the judge told him: “Dealing Class A drugs is peddling death and misery.”

Wadforth will serve half of that sentence behind bars before being released on parole.