Former Tesco manager became drug dealer after losing job – court

A FORMER Tesco manager became a drug dealer after losing his job and getting into financial difficulties, a court has heard.

- JASON EVANS

Kurt Lavender's drugs phone suggested one of his customers was a schoolboy.

A judge described the 31-year-old's behaviour as "utterly shameful" and told him he had not just ruined his own life but the lives of others around him. Lavender was jailed, while his wife, Samantha Evans, was handed a community order for allowing the family home to used for dealing drugs.

Alex Orndal, prosecuting, told Merthyr Crown Court that on May 22 this year police saw a blue Peugeot car in Trefelin in Aberdare, "a known drug-dealing area".

As officers kept watch on the car, a man approached the driver's window and police saw what they believed to be a drugs transaction taking place.

The officers moved in and arrested the driver - Lavender - and searched him and the vehicle, recovering £835 in cash along with 6g of cocaine and a quantity of cannabis.

The court heard Lavender told the officers: "I have just made a silly mistake. I only did it to try to get some money for my family as we are skint."