A teenage dealer who boasted he was “making money like a boss” exchanged text messages with a 13-year-old boy over supplying the drug M-Cat.
Jack Bowers boasted to friends in a series of text messages that he would “never get caught”, and was “famous” in his home town of Loftus.
Despite admitting to supplying M-Cat - and being caught in possession with the drug whilst he was on bail for the first offence - the 18-year-old escaped jail.
Recorder Eric Elliott QC described Bowers as a “key player”, and said while “many people would say you ought to go away, straight away” he suspended a nine-month prison sentence and advised Bowers to “get away from the evil influences of Loftus”.
Bowers, 17 at the time, had been caught at his home on Co-Operative Close, Loftus, with 3.65g of the drug - with a street value of £38.50 - on February 12, 2014.
At that point, officers checked his phone and found a text message to a 13-year-old boy, which told him to send someone else to collect a bag of the drug.
A later message read: “Once you get used to it I will let you come and get it yourself.”
M-Cat was available as a legal high before it was banned by the government in 2010.
Users can experience feelings of anxiety and paranoia, and the drug can also overstimulate the heart, and the nervous system, risking fits.
A number of deaths have been linked to the drug.
Prosecutor Emma Atkinson told the court that while Bowers was on bail, he was seen on June 28 last year going into a property on Tyne Street in Loftus by plain clothes police officers.
Noticing them when he came out, Bowers ran to the Loftus Cricket Club and locked himself in the toilets.
Police found 12 bags of methylmethcathinone, commonly known as M-Cat, in the toilet cistern and Bowers’ fingerprints on the toilet.
He originally denied knowledge, but later pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply in June, and the original charge of supplying the Class B drug between October 1, 2013 and February 12, 2014.
The prosecution estimated that Bowers had sold 15 bags of M-Cat every weekend and made £1,484.50.
Mitigating, Simon Walker said his client was unemployed at the time of the offences and used profits to fund his own use of the drug.
Mr Walker said: “He is now employed. He has nine character references from his family.
“He found it more difficult to say no to those he was frightened of, than do the right thing. It was because he was frightened.
“I would say he was exploited by those further up the chain.”
Suspending Bowers’ nine month prison sentence for a year, Recorder Elliott said: “You were a key player.
"Although I accept you were being used by more professional drug dealers.
“But you still dragged some much younger than you into the drug web in the Loftus area, and boasted about the high profile it gave you.
“You were an immature young man who was taken advantage of. I am sure your family were shocked.
“I take the view that it is in your interest, and the wider public interest, to give you a last chance.”
Alongside the suspended sentence, Bowers was also told to pay £755 in proceeds of crime in the next six months.
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