A cocaine drug dealer found carrying over £10,000 worth of Class A cocaine inside a flask which he’d wrapped in a McDonald’s bag has appeared before Swansea Crown Court for sentence.
Jonathan Bartley, 38, was stopped by police as he drove his BMW through Cross Hands near Carmarthen.
As the officers drove to his home in Sycamore Way, Carmarthen, to carry out further drug searches, they saw Bartley’s partner, Kayleigh Owen-Jones, driving away from the property towards the river.
When she was stopped, she told officers there was cocaine inside her vehicle which amounted to 19 wraps with a street value of £950. Her intention, she said, was to throw the drug into the river, fearing that its discovery insider their home would result in issues concerning her young children, aged seven and four.
Bartley pleaded guilty to possessing Class A cocaine with intent to supply it to others while Owen-Jones admitted a charge of possession.
The offences took place at around 2.55pm on December 7, 2020 after Bartley was stopped near Cross Hands.
On the passenger seat, officers discovered a black flask which had been placed inside a McDonald’s bag. Inside the flask were two resealable plastic bags containing 61.6g and 61.9g respectively of cocaine which had a particularly high purity of 80 per cent.
The street value of the cocaine amounted to between £10,800 and £13,600.
Messages on Bartley’s phone indicated that he was involved in selling the drug in one gram deals while a tick list contained details of the amounts of money that he was owed by 12 users. This amounted to £2,500.
Further investigations confirmed that unexplained amounts of money had been paid into his bank account from March 2018, totalling £16,000.
Bartley was legally represented in court by Miss Georgia Donohue, KC.
“His arrest was a wake-up call and it has greatly changed his lifestyle,” she said.
“He no longer uses cocaine having been a heavy user, initially as a form of self medication to deal with his mental health issues.”
Imposing sentence on both defendants, Judge Paul Thomas KC stressed that Kayleigh Owen-Jones had narrowly avoided the more severe charge of perverting the course of justice.
“When you thought that the police were coming to your house to look for the drugs, you made the decision to take them to the river,” he said.
“That comes very close indeed to perverting the course of justice.”
In sentencing Bartley, Judge Thomas said, “You took the gamble of dealing with Class A drugs to make large sums of money, but that gamble did not pay off.”
Jonathan Bartley was sentenced to two years and four months in custody. He will serve half of this sentence in prison while the remainder will be spent on licence.
Kayleigh Owen-Jones was sentenced to a 12 month community order which includes 100 hours of unpaid work and ten rehabilitation activity requirement days.
