A WOMAN caught passing drugs to an undercover police officer was spared an immediate spell behind bars – after a judge was told she’d kicked an addiction to class A drugs.

Amanda Price was also providing support to recently-bereaved family members and was back with her partner, Judge Jason Taylor QC heard.

The 45-year-old’s barrister, Chris Smyth, said his client had managed to beat an addiction to hard drugs by herself. She’d taken drugs since she was in her teens but, despite that long-running addiction, had last been in trouble in 2005.

Imposing a 20 month sentence suspended for 18 months, Judge Taylor said: “Mercy is not a vice and mercy in this case requires me to look at the other column in the imposition guideline and all of those apply.

“You have a realistic prospect of rehabilitation; you’ve already done the hard part. You have strong personal mitigation; what has gone on in your family and the way you are now in contact with your daughter are all stabilising factors for you. If I sent you to prison today, which I could do, then it would have an effect on others.”

Swindon Crown Court heard Price had been caught passing a wrap of crack cocaine and heroin on September 19, 2019 to an undercover officer known as Steve.

A long-term drug user, she’d owed £200 to her dealers. Mr Smyth said his client had been handed the drugs by a dealer, who was jailed for more than four years in 2019, as he “couldn’t be bothered to go out”. Phone messages pointed to her being sent out as a runner.

In an interview with the probation service, Price candidly admitted dealing from August 2020 after running up a drug debt of approximately £200.

Mr Smyth queried the “extraordinary” delay in Price being sentenced. She pleaded guilty at the first opportunity in 2019, when she was before the magistrates’ court. A pre-sentence report was completed early in 2020, but it wasn’t until this Tuesday that she appeared in the crown court dock.

Price, of Inglesham Road, Penhill, pleaded guilty to two counts of supplying class A drugs.

Judge Taylor ordered Price abide by a six month curfew and complete 25 rehabilitation activity requirement days. Imposing the 20 month suspended sentence, he said: “You have deserved this chance and I’m going to give it to you.”

The drugs were forfeit and will be destroyed.