A DRUG dealer who kept thousands of pounds-worth of drugs in the guttering has been jailed more than five-and-a-half years.

Malaki Wilson, 37, was spotted by police leaning out of the bedroom window of a house on Tilshead Walk, Penhill. The officers were there to check on the occupants of the terraced home, as they were concerned the couple had been cuckooed by dealers.

When officers raided the home they found one of the occupants of the house injecting herself with drugs and London native Wilson, who has three previous drugs supply convictions, gloved and bagging up drugs in the bedroom. 

Prosecutor Hannah Squire told Swindon Crown Court police found 17 wraps of crack cocaine and 10 of heroin. The drugs were wrapped into golf ball-sized packages. 

In total, he had 300 grammes of class A drugs, worth several thousand pounds on the street. A rucksack found in the room contained £5,000 in cash.

Ms Squire said Wilson’s list of previous convictions went back to 1998. He had been jailed in 2006, 2008 and 2011 for peddling drugs in Kent and Swindon. 

Appearing before the court via video link from HMP Bullingdon, Wilson, formerly of Briar Close, Swindon, pleaded guilty to two counts of possession with intent to supply class A drugs. He denied possession of criminally obtained cash and cannabis. The first charge will lie on file while a formal not guilty verdict was recorded against the cannabis possession charge.

The fact this was his fourth drug dealing conviction meant he was subject to a minimum sentence of 68 months imprisonment.

Peter Binder, defending, highlighted his client’s early guilty pleas and the comparative lack of recent convictions.

“It must be the case that the gap in serious offending indicates an attitude on his part to stay out of trouble,” he said. “Sadly, he wasn’t able to maintain that and he’s back in trouble again.”

Wilson spoke to the judge directly, denying that he had been cuckooing the Penhill house – pressuring the occupants to let him stay there in order to provide a base from which he could deal drugs. He told the court he had in fact been invited to stay at the Tilshead Walk home after he had to leave his partner’s home. 

Judge Peter Crabtree said he could see no reason why it would not be unjust to impose the minimum sentence set down by law of five years and eight months.

Wilson was told: “Anyone who is involved in the supply of class A drugs is involved in criminality which wrecks lives and can undermine the fabric of society. That is why it is so serious. That’s why the starting point is inevitably custody.”

The drugs were forfeit and will be destroyed. Ms Squire said the Crown intended to bring Proceeds of Crime Act proceedings against Wilson.