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HE'S NOW 'OLDER AND WISER' WITH AMBITIONS TO 'LEAD AN HONEST LIFE', A COURT HEARD 07:53, 21 May 2025 A 'party pack' of cocaine and MDMA found down a drug

dealer's trousers has finally 'come back to bite him' after he spent more than five years on the run, a court was told. Awale Ahmed, 29, was caught back in 2019 after police

spotted him 'constantly placing his hands near his crotch' in his car. Having subsequently failed to show up for court, he moved from Merseyside to Birmingham, went to college, was

married and then got divorced. Now 'older and wiser' and with ambitions to 'lead an honest life' as a bus driver, his past has caught up with him and has led him to

prison. Liverpool Crown Court heard on Tuesday that police on patrol in Liverpool city centre stopped Ahmed's white Ford Focus on Berry Street on February 1 2019. Ahmed, of Holland

Street in Kensington, was described as "seeming nervous" and "constantly placing his hands down near his crotch area", with officers also noting a strong smell of

cannabis. Olivia Belle, prosecuting, detailed how a bag of cocaine was thereafter recovered from his back pocket. When asked whether he had any further drugs upon his person, Ahmed then

lifted up his jacket in order to produce a further package from his waistband and said: "It's just a party pack." This was subsequently found to contain quantities of both

cocaine and MDMA. A search of his home address thereafter saw paraphernalia, including a set of scales, recovered by PCs, while "multiple messages" advertising drugs for sale were

also discovered on his mobile phone. Ahmed had been due to appear before Sefton Magistrates' Court in relation to this matter on August 18 2020, but a warrant for his arrest was issued

after he failed to appear on this date. Another arrest warrant had earlier been issued in his name after he did not turn up for a previous court hearing on November 4 2019, relating to

breaches of a suspended sentence order he was handed in 2018 for possession of a class B drug with intent to supply after he skipped three appointments with the Probation Service in August

and September 2019, reports The Echo. The defendant was ultimately arrested on April 18 this year when he was spotted by PCs on Lodge Lane in Toxteth. Ahmed has a total of eight previous

convictions for nine offences dating back to 2009, including an earlier entry for possession of cannabis with intent to supply in 2015. Ken Heckle, defending, told the court: "What

essentially happened, in simple terms, is that his last drugs conviction in 2018 led to people coming back to him again and saying 'you have got to start dealing again'. He is not

saying that he was forced or anything of that ilk, but he felt pressured, in his mind, that he should cooperate with that. _JOIN THE MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS WHATSAPP GROUP HERE_ "It is

low level dealing. He says that he was given a phone and some drugs. As a result of that, he then took the decision that has come back to bite him today. He did not want to continue. The

only way he could think of doing it was leaving the area. "He goes to Birmingham. For the last five or six years, he has either been in Birmingham or Liverpool. He has had casual work

and cash in hand jobs, but also official jobs at factories and warehouses in his correct details. "He has done qualifications. He has been to college and done a course with Liverpool

Council. He has got a security qualification. He even got married in 2020. In 2023, sadly, he was divorced. "He would like the court to accept that he is a changed man. He is wiser. He

is older. He has led a pretty blameless working life and wanted to better himself. He wants to do this sentence. He will no longer have the associates and problems which befell him on the

last occasion. Article continues below "He talks about wanting to do a HGV qualification or bus driving. He wants to lead an honest, industrious life as he has tried to do for the last

five or six years. He asks the court to pass a sentence that gives him some hope for the future, rather than crushing his resolve." Ahmed admitted possession of cocaine and MDMA with

intent to supply and two counts of breaching a suspended sentence order. Appearing via video link to HMP Liverpool wearing a light blue t-shirt and sporting short dark hair and a beard, he

was jailed for three-and-a-half years.