A drug dealer jailed in 2019 for selling crack has been given an order banning him from associating with children for the next three years.

Kofie Welch, 26, must also register his car or any vehicle he’s insured to drive with the police – after a judge at Oxford Magistrates’ Court imposed Thames Valley’s first Slavery and Trafficking Risk Order on Friday.

The order, which will run for three years from his release from prison next February, bars him from associating with under-18s or owning more than one mobile phone and requires him to register his address with the police.

Hannah Hinton, appearing for Thames Valley Police at Friday’s court hearing, told District Judge Kamlesh Rana: “The whole purpose behind this is to avoid the arrangement of transport or potential victims of modern slavery.”

In 2019, Welch, who appeared in court via video link from HMP Guys Marsh, was jailed for more than four years at Oxford Crown Court for dealing crack cocaine and possession of cannabis.

Then 24, he was a passenger in a car that sped off when police officers tried to pull it over for speeding in the early hours of March 4.

The car went the wrong way down a one-way street then hit 60mph on Cowley Road.

It smashed into a wall of the Ahlul Bayt Centre on the junction of Marsh Road and Oxford Road. Two occupants, including passenger Welch, fled the scene but were found nearby. Police found a sizeable haul of crack cocaine in the back of the stricken vehicle.

Last month, the dealer received another 20 weeks at Weymouth Magistrates’ Court after he admitted having a banned mobile phone at HMP Guys Marsh, the Dorset prison where he was serving his sentence.

Oxford Magistrates’ Court was not told during the hearing why Thames Valley Police were seeking the Slavery and Trafficking Risk Order.

However, in other areas police forces have used the orders to prevent ‘County Lines’ drug dealers suspected of ordering children or vulnerable adults to run crack cocaine or heroin around the country.

The risk orders, which were brought in by the 2015 Modern Slavery Act, can only be made against someone who has not been convicted of a trafficking or slavery charge.

Increasingly, prosecutors have used modern slavery laws to tackle County Lines gangs – charging gang leaders for trafficking children between cities to sell drugs.

 

Kofie John Welchs 2019 mugshot Picture: TVP

Kofie John Welch's 2019 mugshot Picture: TVP

 

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