A PERSISTENT drug dealer caught multiple times with crack cocaine and heroin to sell on the streets has been jailed for six years.  

Israr Ali, 27, of Devonshire Street, Keighley, pleaded guilty to eight offences of possession with intent to supply Class A drugs and two of being concerned in their supply. 

He gave evidence in a Trial of Issue at Bradford Crown Court today after the prosecution refused to accept his basis of plea. 

Jeremy Hill-Baker, for the Crown, said Ali was drug dealing on his own account. Significant amounts of money had been found with him when he was arrested. 

The prosecutor took issue with the claim that Ali’s only reward was receiving drugs and reducing his debt. 

Ali told the court he had been beaten up, stabbed and had his jaw broken after being pressured and threatened over a drugs debt. 

He agreed that he had previous convictions and had been jailed in February 2016 for 42 months. He told the court he began using drugs after he was released from that sentence and he was taking crack cocaine and heroin from about 2017. 

In 2018/19 he was unemployed and ran up a drugs debt. He was recalled to prison for using heroin while on licence. 

Ali said his dealer then caught up with him and demanded payment. He was pressurised and threatened. 

“If I don’t do it, he’s going to beat me up,” he said. 

He alleged he was beaten up several times and stabbed. He was treated at Leeds General Infirmary and at Bradford. 

Mr Hill-Baker accepted that Ali had been attacked and treated in hospital. 

Shufqat Khan, Ali’s barrister, said the defendant had intellectual development disorder. 

He was extremely suggestible and drug dealers utilised people with that vulnerability. 

Judge Sophie McKone said that Ali was dealing for a two-year period from 2020 to 2022. 

He was first caught in March 2020 with drugs and cash and then bailed. 

In May of that year, he was again found with cocaine and heroin, and in November, 2021, the same thing happened. 

In May, 2022, Ali was caught with £14,500 in cash, substantial amounts of drugs and a dealer phone. 

Judge McKone accepted that he was pressured and coerced and paid in drugs and for a reduction of his drug debt. 

He was of low intelligence and his mother had passed away while he was in custody in HMP Leeds. He was working hard on remand to rid himself of his drug addiction. 

But he had chosen to continue to go back out on to the streets time and time again to continue dealing misery, the judge stated.