Jobless dealer had exotic holidays (From Darlington and Stockton Times)

Jobless dealer had exotic holidays

10:41am Monday 26th March 2012 in News

A JOBLESS drug dealer who enjoyed a “cash-rich” lifestyle of exotic holidays, expensive jewellery and an apartment in an exclusive part of town has been jailed for four years.

David Kemp paid for his overseas trips in cash and spent more than £2,000 on a designer watch – all while claiming unemployment benefits, Teesside Crown Court was told.

When police raided his riverside apartment in Sunderland, they found expensive furnishings and equipment, as well as cannabis and £6,000 in cash.

Kemp’s passport showed he had recently visited Thailand and had made currency changes worth £4,000. There was also cash from Cambodia, Brazil and the US in the flat.

Police searched the property after stopping the 33-year-old in a car in Acklam Road, Middlesbrough, in December 2010, and finding more than £18,000 in a bag on the back seat.

Kemp – who had last worked as a spray-painter in 2006 – admitted receiving benefits, but told officers that he knew how to play the machines in betting shops and had a generous family.

Nine months later, he was stopped again in his car – this time on the A1, near Skeeby, in North Yorkshire – when he had nearly £7,000-worth of cannabis bush in the boot.

Kieran Rainey, mitigating, said Kemp had run up £20,000 gambling losses, as well as other debts, and had resorted to becoming a drug dealer after being a cannabis user since his teens.

“He realises he took a wrong turn,” Mr Rainey told Judge Peter Bowers.

Kemp, of Echo Buildings, West Wear Street, Sunderland, admitted possessing criminal property, possessing Class B drugs with intent to supply and possessing Class B drugs.