Amar Bashir pleaded guilty at the first opportunity to offences of possessing cocaine and cannabis with intent to supply and supplying the drugs

Amar Bashir, of Bradford Road, Riddlesden, was arrested by police after being stopped in a car in Keighley last November. Prosecutor Nigel Hamiton told Bradford Crown Court today that Bashir, who had no previous convictions, was in the car with a woman who later told police that he had asked her to store drugs for him at her home. During a search of her home police recovered skunk cannabis valued at almost £3,500 together with nearly £800 of cocaine. Bashir admitted in a police interview that he had asked the woman to look after the package of drugs because he was uncomfortable about it being stored at his address. He went on to reveal that he had been working as a so-called “waiter” for three or four weeks. “Effectively he was the link between the street dealers and the supplier higher up in the chain,” said Mr Hamilton. Bashir pleaded guilty at the first opportunity to offences of possessing cocaine and cannabis with intent to supply and supplying the drugs on earlier occasions. Barrister Stephen Wood said Bashir’s offending mainly involved cannabis rather class A drugs. He revealed that his client was the eldest son of a decent, hard-working family and he had been working at a care home recently.
Judge Roger Scott accepted that Bashir’s involvement had been as a custodian for drugs or as “waiter”, but he added: “Both of those occupations are important in the dealing of drugs on the streets of West Yorkshire.”