Bolton: Dealer walked into police station with Class A drugs

Mohammed Ashraf, 27, went to the Scholey Street station on May 26 last year and asked to speak to an officer.

But Bolton Crown Court heard he had walked into the station with hundreds of pounds of illegal drugs.

Prosecutor Gulam Ahmed said: “The defendant became quite upset and put his hand in his pocket.

“He said there was nothing in his pocket, but he was then tried to put his hand down his trousers.”

Mohammed Ashraf walked into Bolton Police Station with wraps of heroin and crack cocaine (Image: Newsquest)

Ashraf, of no fixed abode, turned out to have 23 wraps of heroin hidden on him with 26 crack cocaine and around £500 in cash.

The total value of the Class A drugs came to a street value of more than £1,800.

Ashraf, who has three previous convictions for seven offences, was immediately arrested and pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of Class A drugs with intent to supply.

But the court heard how Ashraf, who appeared via video link from prison, had already been convicted and sentenced to 40 months in prison for two very similar crimes committed in May 2019 and August 2022.

Rebecca Penfold, defending, said: “All of these offences should have been dealt with together, in one sentencing, in March of this year or today.

“That would have given this man a fair and proportionate sentence.”

Ms Penfold argued that Ashraf was “not anyone greater than a street dealer” and said he had walked into the police station with drugs and cash on him in “an entirely unsophisticated manner.”

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She said that Ashraf, still a young man at 27-years-old, had since undergone mental health treatment and taken part in various courses while in prison.

Judge Eliot Knopf accepted that Ashraf had earned credit by pleading guilty and agreed that his case should have been dealt with all together at an earlier hearing.

He also said that a report about the defendant “is a bit of a curate’s egg, it is good in some parts but there are other parts which cause concern.”

Addressing Ashraf, he added: “You were a street dealer, you seemed to be in it for financial benefit and you seem to have played a significant role.”

Judge Knopf sentenced Ashraf to a further two years in prison, to be added the 40 month sentence he was already serving.