A DRUG dealer who brought an ex-partner into the murky world of drug dealing in a bid to launch her own operation has been spared jail.

Andrew Bowen, of Portian Place, Blackbird Leys, Oxford, had already pleaded guilty to two counts of supplying class A drugs – heroin and cocaine, as well as possession of cannabis.

Oxford Crown Court heard at his sentencing yesterday how the 37-year old had acted as a go-between for an ex-partner, by helping her set up her own ill-fated drug dealing enterprise.

Not having any connections within Oxford’s drug dealing underbelly, the court heard, Debra Wilson pleaded with the defendant to help her embark on a life of crime.

Although Bowen, who had previously been a cannabis addict, had initially refused to help, he eventually relented and introduced Wilson to another man whom he knew – Dean Woodley, who was a drugs user.

Her operation was halted, however, after the three were stopped by police while together inside a car parked behind the Oxford Crown Court building at St Aldate’s, Oxford on July 11 last year.

Police searched the vehicle and discovered an unspecified quantity of cocaine and heroin on Miss Wilson's person, who was the driver of the car, as well as cannabis.

Wilson and Woodley have both since separately been sentenced for their roles in the drug dealing at an earlier hearing. Wilson, who was seen as the driving force behind the drug dealing, was jailed for 30 months, the court heard.

Recorder John Ryder called Bowen's involvement as the go-between in the enterprise an ‘aberrant’ episode from an otherwise hard-working individual.

In mitigation his defence team also said that he had suffered from mental health problems including depression and that he had made a suicide attempt after his arrest for the offence.

He also regularly works 12-hour days as a forklift truck driver in order to support his family, the court heard.

Recorder John Ryder said: “It would not be in the public interest to send you to prison. It would destabilise you further.

“You might make, in the opinion of the psychiatrist, further attempts on your own life and it may be that one of these would be successful.

“I am quite satisfied that you are most unlikely to commit any further offences.”

Bowen was given a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years and ordered to complete 15 days of a rehabilitation activity requirement.