A DRUG dealer from Okehampton has been given a final chance to sort out his life after he was trapped by a police sting operation.

John Williams acted as delivery boy for a London-based gang which was selling heroin and crack cocaine through a so-called County Lines phone number.

Buyers called the phone, which remained with the gang kingpins in London, and a rendez-vous was arranged for them to be delivered by a ‘runner’.

Williams’s role was to take the drugs to the venue and his only reward was to receive heroin to feed his addiction, Exeter Crown Court was told.

He was caught twice in the space of five days as he sold wraps of drugs to an undercover officer using the false name of Keith.

Williams was spared an immediate jail sentence after a judge heard how he has weaned himself off heroin since his arrest in August last year and is now working as a chef at a hotel.

Williams, aged 46, admitted two counts of supplying class A drugs and was jailed for two years, suspended for two years by Judge David Evans at Exeter Crown Court.

The judge told him: ’You have lived a life which has see-sawed between periods of abstinence, when you have been employed and had relationships; and periods of ruinous drug use.

‘These offences occurred during a period of relapse. You are no longer in denial and accept your responsibility.

‘If you have any further contact with drugs I am told it will lead to the termination of your contact with your grandchildren and it seems this is spurring you on to an admirable effort to stay off drugs.’ He warned Williams he would receive a mandatory seven-year sentence if he was caught drug dealing again because he already had a previous conviction dating back to 2004.

Brian Fitzherbert, said Williams was one of a large number of dealers caught in the police operation last summer in which officers posing as drug users ordered heroin and crack from County Lines phone numbers.

On August 17 an officer using the name Keith ordered drugs from the Rico County Lines phone and was directed to an alley off Okehampton Lane in Exeter.

He was told to pay £20 to another man and Williams then handed over two bags of drugs. A similar transaction took place in Wardrew Road, Exeter, on August 22.

Williams was photographed covertly but claimed to be the victim of mistaken identity despite having a distinctive straggly beard.

Lee Bremridge, defending, said Williams had been given an ultimatum by his son that he would only be allowed to see his three young grandchildren if he stops using drugs.

He had engaged voluntarily with the addiction services and had been able to get clean and start work as a chef at a hotel.

Williams, aged 46, admitted two counts of supplying class A drugs and was jailed for two years, suspended for two years by Judge David Evans at Exeter Crown Court.

The judge told him: ’You have lived a life which has see-sawed between periods of abstinence, when you have been employed and had relationships; and periods of ruinous drug use.

‘These offences occurred during a period of relapse. You are no longer in denial and accept your responsibility.

‘If you have any further contact with drugs I am told it will lead to the termination of your contact with your grandchildren and it seems this is spurring you on to an admirable effort to stay off drugs.’ He warned Williams he would receive a mandatory seven-year sentence if he was caught drug dealing again because he already had a previous conviction dating back to 2004.

Brian Fitzherbert, said Williams was one of a large number of dealers caught in the police operation last summer in which officers posing as drug users ordered heroin and crack from County Lines phone numbers.

On August 17 an officer using the name Keith ordered drugs from the Rico County Lines phone and was directed to an alley off Okehampton Lane in Exeter.

He was told to pay £20 to another man and Williams then handed over two bags of drugs. A similar transaction took place in Wardrew Road, Exeter, on August 22.

Williams was photographed covertly but claimed to be the victim of mistaken identity despite having a distinctive straggly beard.

Lee Bremridge, defending, said Williams had been given an ultimatum by his son that he would only be allowed to see his three young grandchildren if he stops using drugs.

He had engaged voluntarily with the addiction services and had been able to get clean and start work as a chef in a hotel in Exeter.