'Lucky' Wakefield crack dealer spared jail is locked up for probation failure

Mark Doherty was told he was fortunate to walk out of court earlier this year after he was convicted of supplying heroin and crack cocaine.

But he then did not show up for two appointments, which formed part of his 24-month jail sentence that was suspended for 24 months.

Making matters worse, he was also found in Wakefield city centre on May 28 carrying a 3.5-inch knife in his pocket, prosecutor Jordan Millican told Leeds Crown Court this week.

Police officers on patrol saw him sat on a step with another male and there was smell of spice - the illegal synthetic cannabinoid - coming from them, the officer reported.

When the officer tried to arrest 45-year-old Doherty, he tried to flee but was quickly apprehended. He then tried to run again but was quickly detained.

He told his friend “I’m f****d” after confessing he had the knife in his pocket. He later told police he had been cutting a washing line at home and got a phone call from his mother, so put the knife in his pocket and had forgotten about it.

Doherty, has 55 convictions for 112 offences, many for theft and a previous conviction for possessing a weapon in public - meaning he faced a mandatory six-month jail sentence on this occasion.

Mitigating, Esther Bukoye said he had been “frank” with the police on his arrest and said of the knife: “He was not brandishing it or seeking to use it in any way.”

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For the breaches, Miss Bukoye said Doherty, of Dunbar Street, Wakefield, led a “hectic lifestyle” and was “apologetic” for his actions.

The judge, Recorder Ayesha Smart said: “You were lucky to be afforded a suspended sentence order. No doubt you would have been warned by the judge who sentenced you, in no uncertain terms, that you should comply with that order and not commit any further offences.”

She jailed him for six months for the knife offences, and activated 18 months of his suspended sentence to run consecutively, making a total of 24 months.