Nelson man jailed for possession of £10k cannabis stash

Javaad Daar, 34, had owned up to having the 1.19 kilos of cannabis at his home on the basis he was the ‘custodian’ of the haul and was going to give it back to its owner. Daar is currently serving four years behind bars, after he was found guilty by a jury of blackmail.

He was handed another six months at Burnley Crown Court, after admitting possessing cannabis with intent to supply.

The defendant, of Cliffe Street, Nelson, must serve the new term consecutively to the four years.

Tim Brennand, prosecuting, said police went to the defendant’s then home in February with a drugs warrant and found him smoking a spliff.

Officers found drugs with a street value of £9,940, snap seal bags, two cannabis grinders and electronic scales.

Mr Brennand said the defendant was interviewed by police, admitted he had financial problems, and said he had not known how he was going to pay the rent. It was suggested he could make extra cash by acting as a custodian and a man had gone to his house, left the drugs in a bag and told him not to touch it.

The hearing was told Daar, who claimed he used the scales to weigh his own drugs after he had bought them, declined to name the people involved.

He said some of the drugs in the house were for his own use and had been bought on a trip to Amsterdam. Mr Brennand said the defendant, a ‘regular and persistent user of cannabis’, had been convicted of possessing drugs.

The court had heard how Daar and an accomplice blackmailed a young woman. The duo, who made her hand over jewellery worth £5,000, including her wedding ring, and threatened to throw acid in her face.

William Staunton, for Daar, said the four year sentence had been ‘shattering’ for him and had had a dramatic effect.

Sentencing the drugs offence, Judge Andrew Woolman said Daar was an intelligent man, whose life seemed to have gone seriously off the rails, probably as a result of his drug taking.