A drug dealer found with a block of heroin tried to stage an escape from police officers but instead reversed straight into another police car.
Police moved to arrest Spencer Bowen and his passenger Ben Catterall after they suspected them of being involved in drug dealing earlier this year. When the plain clothes officers tried to arrest him Bowen tried to drive his car away but hit an unmarked police car almost immediately.
Bowen was jailed today but a judge gave Catterall a suspended sentence despite him admitting possession of heroin with intent to supply it. Christopher Taylor, prosecuting, said Bowen was driving his car through Kirkdale on Monday, January 13, when police pulled him over after a member of the public reported the car.
READ MORE: Suspect named after woman 'sexually assaulted' at knifepoint
Mr Taylor said plain clothes officers who were investigating county lines drug issues in the area went to arrest the pair but Bowen and Catterall made a vain attempt to avoid surrender. He said: “[The officers’] warrant cards were clearly shown. The vehicle then drove off, reversing at speed before colliding with a police vehicle parked behind.
“Police then tried to get the defendants to leave the car but the defendants refused to get out of the vehicle and locked themselves in. Officers then used batons to hit the vehicle and the vehicle was then unlocked.”
Police later found a block of heroin in a parcel addressed to an address in Aberdeen inside the car. Analysis deemed it to be between £6,600 and £9,900 in value. Another, much smaller package was found in a bathroom cupboard in Bowen’s home.
Bowen has previously served a jail term for dealing cocaine but Taylor has no previous convictions. Stephen McNally, defending Bowen, said the 24 year old admitted dangerous driving in the magistrates’ courts and pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply heroin shortly after.
Referring to Bowen’s erratic attempt to get away from police, Mr McNally said: “It was an extremely short lived incident, it does not have the aggravating features that this court often sees such as driving through red lights or driving on the wrong side of the road. It is essentially an attempt to get away from being brought in.”
Mr McNally pointed to difficult events in Bowen’s youth, including time spent in care, which made him more vulnerable to criminality. He said said that since being remanded in prison Bowen had become trusted with a mentoring role in the kitchen and had attained enhanced prisoner status.
Mr McNally added that while Bowen was clearly the more involved of the pair, he too was only involved in dealing at a low level and was taking instructions from others further up the chain. John Rowan, defending Catterall, said the 22 year old’s family were blindsided by his arrest for drug dealing given their efforts to shelter him from exposure to criminality, an absence of trouble in his youth and the fact that he held down a steady job.
Describing Catterall as naive and immature, Mr Rowan said his family were desperate to avoid him going to prison. He said: “To say that they are shocked and devastated at being in this building and in his involvement in these proceedings is perhaps an understatement. They have, for the past few months, been trying to wrap their heads around this and what caused it.”
Mr Rowan appealed to the judge, Recorder Richard Conley, to hand Catterall a suspended sentence. Recorder Conley handed Catterall a jail term of two years but suspended it for two months, warning him he had narrowly avoided prison and that any breach of his sentence would likely land him there.
Catterall must also complete 25 rehabilitation days, 150 hours of unpaid work and follow a three month curfew. This was placed between 10am and 10pm to take account of his role as a nighttime worker.
Finding Bowen to have played a more substantial role, Recorder Conley jailed him for four years for possession with intent to supply and dangerous driving. Speaking about the impact of Bowen and Catterall’s behaviour, Recorder Conley said: “As you both well know, heroin is an extremely dangerous drug. It causes degradation, it ruins families, it ruins communities, it ruins futures. It may just take away both of your futures if you continue down this road.”
