A drug-dealing scientist who was caught with cannabis and hundreds of pounds of cash stuffed down her underwear has walked free from court.
Toma Augustaityte, 27, was caught with two bags of drugs and the money when police stopped her car for a broken light on her car as she drove through Coventry last September.
A search of her phone revealed she had been dealing drugs for five months and had been trying to buy a kilo of cannabis.
Augustaityte, a scientist with a London-based diagnostics company, admitted possessing cannabis with intent to supply when she appeared at Warwick Crown Court on July 23.
The court heard it was the second time she had been caught with cannabis.
Agustaityte, from Coventry, tearfully clutched a stuffed toy dog as Recorder Balraj Bhatia QC handed her a 12-month community order.
He said: “The aggravating feature is the dealing over a five-month period and the interest in up to a kilo.
“Had she been committed for being concerned in the supply over that five months, that would have taken the sentencing tariff higher.
“But she was only charged with possession with intent to supply on that occasion.”
The judge added: “This has the potential for an 18-month prison sentence after trial, but I am going to give you full credit for your plea of guilty.
“I am not going to send you to prison.
“The reason is that I believe you were just in a bad period of your life, influenced by someone who was a bad person.
“You have broken away from that, and what you have been able to achieve is to pick up the pieces of your life, and you are trying to get your life back into order.”
Graeme Simpson, prosecuting, told the court that when she was searched at the police station, cops found £480 in cash in her underwear and later, drug paraphernalia at her home.
Mr Simpson said: “The cannabis found in the car weighed 32 grams, with a street value of around £200.
“Messages on her phone showed she had been supplying cannabis over a five-month period and had been trying to obtain up to a kilo of the drug.”
Mr Simpson said Augustaityte was currently subject to a community order with 200 hours of unpaid work imposed last November last year for possessing cannabis and a lock knife.
Haroon Khattak, defending, said: “She was in a relationship with someone she does not wish to identify.
“This was the trigger into the world of drug supply, initially driving this man and then driving herself.”
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