A YOUNG entrepreneur who had a start-up company was beginning a jail term for dealing cocaine this week after his new business card and his NHS boss mum failed to convince a judge to let him walk free.
Christopher Headland had been running his new business, A&C Flooring, with his friends for the last few months before he appeared at Oxford Crown Court on Thursday to be sentenced for possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply.
Defending the 20-year-old at court, barrister Nick Cotter produced a freshly-printed business card and handed it to Judge Nigel Daly as evidence of his client's credentials.
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Mr Cotter said: "He is building up a business. He is more than capable of putting something back into society.
"This young man – and his mother does not mind me saying this – comes from a supportive and good background. His mother is a manager in the NHS in this city."
Headland's mother, who Mr Cotter said had brought the family from Devon to live in Oxford several years ago, was in court to support her son.
Judge Daly had heard how Headland had been spotted loitering by police just after midnight on May 19 last year on St Thomas Street in Oxford.
Detectives found messages pertaining to drug deals on his phone, large sums of cash at his home and an abandoned bag full of blue wraps of cocaine near where he was arrested.
Prosecutors said the young man had been running his own drugs operation.
The court also heard that he had four previous convictions for six offences, including handling stolen goods and possessing a knife.
Headland, of Margaret Road, Oxford, admitted possessing a Class A drug, cocaine with intent to supply.
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He also admitted possessing the Class A drug MDMA and Class B drug cannabis.
Judge Daly told him: "I have been impressed by what you have done since this, keeping out of trouble for 18 months, but I can only reduce the sentence so far.
"I am not able to reduce the sentence to a sufficient level that would allow me to suspend it."
The judge jailed Headland for 26 months.
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