Six years' jail for debt-ridden dad who turned to drug-dealing

A MAN who admitted selling more than four kilos of cocaine in a bid to clear a £20,000 drug debt has been jailed for six-and-a-half years.

Javed Miah (30), previously of New Milton but then of no fixed abode, was sentenced at Southampton Crown Court after admitting a charge of supplying class A drugs.

The court heard that Miah had previously been jailed for three months in 2007 for supplying class-B drug cannabis.

Following his release he kept out of trouble, but a historic drug debt caught up with him and repeated threats were made against him and his family if the money was not repaid, defence solicitor Roderick Blain said.

The defendant began using drugs again in 2017 after his second son was born with Lesch-Nyhan syndrome, a genetic condition which causes neurological and behavioural abnormalities.

His first-born son, who also had the condition, had recently died following complications, the court heard.

Mr Blain said Miah, who was in charge of running the family restaurant, began suffering from severe anxiety and depression, and was using seven grams of cocaine a day.

The defendant had tried to raise money to repay the debt, which was growing daily, by dealing in kilo blocks of the drug.

After it was not repaid, a senior member of an organised crime group had made threats to petrol bomb his home and he had also been stabbed, it was claimed.

As well as the six-and-a-half-year prison term, Miah was ordered to pay £170 costs.