A convicted drug dealer who has struggled to get a legal aid lawyer was warned that he would be sentenced the next time his case was in court. 

Agency worker Frederick Njoroge, 21, of Botley Road, Oxford, had been due to be sentenced at Oxford Crown Court on Thursday, having pleaded guilty at the magistrates’ court in February to possession with intent to supply heroin and crack cocaine in Banbury.

But the case could not go ahead, with Judge Maria Lamb told that Njoroge’s difficulties in instructing a lawyer persisted.

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She noted that he had provided a payslip to solicitors, but it was too old to enable them to claim legal aid on his behalf. As a result, he stood in the dock on Thursday without legal representation.

Putting the case back to May 16, Judge Lamb warned the defendant: “This is it. Next time if you don’t have legal representation the court will proceed to sentence.”

Earlier, she told him: “These are serious matters and it is in your interest to be legally represented. Are you clear on that?”

The drug dealing charges to which Njoroge has pleaded guilty carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, although sentences can vary from heavy periods in jail to a fine or conditional discharge depending on the seriousness of the case.

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