Drug dealers caught after woman's 'tragic' death
BBCTwo drug dealers were caught selling illegal prescription medication "as if they were sweets" after one of their customers died, a court has heard.
Kevin Bebbington and Jake Tait, both from Berwick, were found to be supplying four different drugs following the death of a woman in March 2021, Newcastle Crown Court heard.
While her death could not be linked to the actual drugs she bought from the men, a judge said the fatal levels that killed her were of the same type they had been selling and the case should act a "stark" warning.
Each man admitted possessing Class C drugs with intent to supply and both were jailed for nine months suspended for 18 months.
The woman was found to have "fatal levels of drugs in her system" with police locating the two dealers through messages on her phone, prosecutor Claire Anderson said.
Bebbington, now 29 but 24 at the time, was offering drugs including diazepam and Xanax in various different quantities, the court heard.
Tait, who was 30 at the time and is now 35, told the woman he had "loads of people" wanting his drugs and warned her some of the medication was "really strong mind" so she should take "no more than two at a time or you'll die", the court was told.
When charged, the two men admitted supplying diazepam, tramadol, pregabalin and Xanax.
'Idiots from the streets'
In mitigation, Kate Barnes said both men had become addicted to the drugs themselves after being prescribed pain killers for health reasons.
She said they were both "extremely devastated and shaken" by the woman's death.
Recorder Carl Gumsley said it was a "tragic death" but the men could not be sentenced on the basis of being directly responsible for it.
He said there was "no evidential basis" they had supplied the killer drugs but "plainly" the types of drugs they were supplying "played a part" in the woman's death.
"It is a stark and tragic reminder of what messing about with prescription drugs can do," the judge said, adding the men knew the dangers, as shown by their messages, yet still dealt them "as if they were sweets".
The judge said drugs needing to be prescribed were "dangerous" and it was for "experts" to supply them, "not idiots from the streets".
But he accepted both men were remorseful and in the five years it had taken for the case to resolve in court, a delay criticised by the judge, each man had shown himself capable of rehabilitation.
Bebbington, of Hillside, was also ordered to complete 200 hours unpaid work but Tait, of The Croft in Horncliffe, was not fit to do so.
The were also each ordered to pay £200 court costs.