LJMU student caught dealing cocaine

An LJMU student was caught dealing cocaine by a Grand Central maintenance man.

Sports degree student Charlin Deugoue – who was known as a talented footballer – had his stash found by a maintenance man when it dropped out of a cooker hood at his accommodation on March 4 last year.

The engineer was removing a cooker hood, and as he did two plastic bags fell from the ducting above the hood. One contained eight rolled-up £20 notes, and the other contained six packages of cocaine with a street value of up to £80, and 10 smaller packages of Ketamine, worth up to £400.

The maintenance man reported this to the student accommodation office. Staff asked Deugoue whether it was his, and he said that it was but that he wasn’t selling any. Police then examined his phone and found texts related to drug dealing.

The 20-year-old had trials at a number of football clubs including Leicester City, Stoke, Huddersfield and Rochdale. But Charles Lander, defending, said that his client had shown great ambition and education was the way that he wanted to go.

Mr Lander said: “He knows through his own stupidity he has thrown that all away.” He asked that a suspended sentence be imposed so that Deugoue could finish his studies, however this request was denied by the recorder Richard Pratt, who said that drugs ruin lives. He gave Deugoue a sentence of two years and four months.

Pratt said: “It is extremely disappointing to see someone like you in the dock. All I’ve read suggests that you are a man with considerable qualities, having demonstrated a determination to pursue your education.

“Instead of fulfilling, regrettably you started to use drugs and then, much worse than that, you started to supply them to your fellow students.”