A crack cocaine-dealing mum told her drugs line boss that she’d smoked the stock – and she would have to pay him back.

Joannah Whitaker, 49, was working for mystery man ‘Angelo’, hawking crack cocaine from her home in Barton.

Oxford Crown Court heard that armed police executed a warrant at her home in Edgecombe Road on December 5 last year.

Inside, they found Whitaker and her son. She volunteered where they would find a safe and that, inside it, they would find drugs. She also made it clear her son was not involved in the trade.

As well as crack cocaine worth around £120, the officers seized mobile phones, £195 in cash, scales and other paraphernalia related to the drugs trade.

READ MORE: Police make arrest after raid in Barton

Messages found on the phone pointed to Whitaker dealing drugs on behalf of someone called ‘Angelo’.

In one message to her boss, she said she had smoked all the drugs she had been given to sell and would have to pay him back.

In interview, she provided a prepared statement claiming the drugs were for her personal use. She answered the detectives' questions 'no comment'.

Whitaker, of Edgecombe Road, Oxford, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply class A drugs. She had one previous conviction for selling drugs, meaning she risked a minimum seven year jail sentence if she is caught again.

Mitigating, Kellie Enever said her client had been addicted to the drug she was selling, although had periods of abstinence. She was ‘triggered’ by the recent death of her partner and fell back into addiction.

Since being remanded into custody, she had managed to reduce the amount of medication – sometimes called a ‘script’ – she was being prescribed to tackle cravings.

The mum had missed the birth of her grandchild while on remand at HMP Eastwood Park, near Bristol.

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Whitaker was committed to change, the court heard. “She doesn’t want to be that person who takes drugs and isn’t here the next day,” Ms Enever said.

Recorder John Hardy KC imposed 12 months’ imprisonment suspended for two years, noting her guilty plea, her cooperation with the police, the time she had spent on remand, her efforts to rid herself of her crack addiction and the fact her family remained supportive.

Referencing the presence of Whitaker’s children in the public gallery of courtroom one on Friday (March 24), the judge said: “Whereas it is obvious to me that you have been an addict, they have not and that says something about them and also says something about your parenting.”

He added that being arrested by armed police ‘must have been quite the experience’.

As part of her suspended sentence, Whitaker must do up to 10 rehabilitation activity requirement days, wear a GPS monitoring tag and complete a 12 month drug rehabilitation requirement.

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