by Staff Reporter

Last updated at 11:36, Wednesday, 07 March 2012

A drugs trafficker has had his prison sentence slashed by a third on appeal.

Scott Lawman

Despite hearing class A drugs were “the scourge” of “impoverished” people in west Cumbria, three Appeal Court judges in London yesterday cut the jail sentence of Scott Lawman to six years.

Lawman, 32, of Hunters Close, Seaton, was jailed for nine years for his role in a plot to flood the streets of Workington with £90,000 worth of cocaine from Bradford.

Mr Justice Simon, sitting with Lord Justice Hooper and Mr Justice Stadlen, told the court Lawman was seen loading a large parcel into the car of one of his associates in Wigton last year. When the car was later stopped on its way to Workington, police found the package contained 2.3 kilos of cocaine, with a street value of £90,000, the judge said.

Lawman, who has previous drugs convictions, admitted the offence on the basis that he was a trusted courier who passed the drugs between higher level criminals in Yorkshire and west coast street dealers.

He also owned up to controlling another half kilo of the drug in 2010, and was jailed at Carlisle Crown Court in November last year on charges of being concerned in the supply of cocaine.

Lord Justice Hooper noted that the fact that Workington was an “impoverished area” increased the seriousness of the offence. But Lawman’s barrister, Alison Whalley, claimed the sentencing judge, who branded cocaine the “scourge of west Cumbria”, overestimated his role in the plot.

Mr Justice Simon ruled that the amount of drugs did not warrant Lawman’s lengthy sentence, which he cut to six years, meaning he will be entitled to automatic release after three years behind bars.

First published at 11:24, Wednesday, 07 March 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk