A drug dealer from Falmouth who set up shop in the car park of a closed pub during lockdown has been jailed.

James Pickard was arrested after police watched him supplying a string of addicts outside the Malt House in Haven Road, Exeter and a nearby shopping centre.

He was selling to pay off a drug debt to a County Lines supply operation which used a taxi to deliver a phone and a large amount of heroin and crack cocaine to his home.

He was not being paid but was getting free drugs and a reduction in his £80 debt for each day that he operated as a runner for the gang.

He was caught during the latest lockdown, six days before pubs were allowed to reopen, Exeter Crown Court was told.

Pickard, aged 27, originally of Kimberley Park Road, Falmouth, but now of Broadway, Exeter, admitted possession of class A drugs with intent to supply and was jailed for two years by Judge David Evans.

Falmouth Packet:

He told him that his dealing was more serious because it was in a pub car park and a retail park in the middle of a shopping day when many members of the public were nearby.

Miss Francesca Whebell, prosecuting, said police saw Pickard selling to known drug users behind the Exe Bridges retail park before moving to the pub car park, where two more addicts pulled up in cars.

He was found with 40 unsold wraps of heroin or crack, each with a street value of £10 to £20, and £100 takings from the earlier deals.

Mr Simon Burns, defending, said Pickard has been battling a ‘savage and horrendous’ heroin addiction since he was 16 but is now determined to overcome his habit.

He resorted to dealing through desperation because he was in debt at a time when his life had unravelled.