A PAIR of fresh-faced drug dealers who ran the “Frank” line have been jailed.

Friends Harry Law and Dolson Rochester were still in their teens when they were caught selling cannabis, crack cocaine and heroin out of a cuckooed flat in Melksham in August 2019.

Both men, now 20, had already been caught by the same police officer dealing cannabis in Chippenham.

Jailing “intelligent” Law, now living in Swindon, for two years and two months Recorder Elisabeth Bussey-Jones noted Law had turned his life around and had the support of almost a dozen references.

She said: “I wholly appreciate what’s been said about you but I do had to sentence you for the offences you committed and the pre-sentence report  that’s been provided while it does help you in many ways, your frankness – which is to be commended – also indicates really how entrenched this offending was and how you were properly dealing in drugs as a means of earning money.”

Wiltshire Times:

Dolson Rochester (left) and Harry Law (right) Picture: WILTSHIRE POLICE

His co-defendant, Rochester, who pleaded guilty on the day of his trial to being concerned in the supply of class A and B drugs, was sentenced to two years and four months’ imprisonment.

Prosecutor Susan Cavender told Swindon Crown Court on Friday that Law was stopped by police at around 8pm on May 17, 2019, after he was watched rolling a cannabis joint as he spoke to two women in Chippenham. He was searched and found to have £205-worth of cannabis and a knife with a six inch blade.

It was the same police officer who caught Rochester two months later, on July 9, behind the Olympiad Leisure Centre in Chippenham. He had £245-worth of cannabis on him as well as a mobile phone used to send bulk messages to customers.

On August 6, police watched Law in Byron Close, Melksham, as a car pulled up and he got in the back seat then left the car around a minute later. There were young children playing nearby and a neighbour came up to police officers to complain about drug dealing in the area.

Law was arrested. Found on him was £50 cash, a crack pipe and a dual-sim mobile phone. They let themselves into a known addict’s flat nearby, where they found Rochester with £1,070-worth of crack cocaine and heroin, almost £790 cash and two sets of scales with traces of cocaine, MDMA, ketamine and cannabis on them.

Wiltshire Times:

Byron Close, Melksham Picture: GOOGLE

Law, of Broad Street, Swindon, pleaded guilty at the magistrates’ court to being concerned in the supply of crack cocaine, heroin and cannabis and possession of a bladed article. Rochester, of Ramsay Road, Calne, admitted being concerned in the supply of crack cocaine, heroin and cannabis. Neither man had previous convictions.

Ellen McAnaw, for Law, said he had started using drugs at a very young age and had suffered from drug-induced psychosis. At the time he was arrested he was homeless and living in the Melksham flat in return for free drugs.

Since the arrest he had turned his life around. Ms McAnaw asked the judge to consider suspending any prison sentence: “It is a plea of mercy on his behalf given the great efforts he’s gone to to rehabilitate himself that he be allowed to continue doing so in the community.”

John Upton, for Rochester, said his client had begun dealing after running up a drug debt. He experienced mental health difficulties.

Like his co-defendant, Rochester's life had changed significantly since 2019 and his pre-sentence report was one of the best his barrister had seen. He was in employment and had hopes of growing his business creating decorative “tooth grills”.

Both men were 18-years-old when they were arrested.