A COCAINE pusher who resumed dealing while on parole got a jail term shorter than his previous one due to overcrowding.
Jamie Griffey was caught with £10,000 of the drug after a four-year sentence for his part in an earlier racket.
The dad of three, 30, from Uley, Gloucs, admitted the crime but got only two years and ten months this time after Judge Richard Mawhinney noted the conditions and numbers in prisons.
He told Gloucester crown court: “I have to take into account the state of prison overcrowding.
“That has the effect of reducing what would otherwise be the sentence.”
He also noted Griffey had taken steps to tackle his drug addiction.
Prosecutor Lucy Taylor said Griffey had been released on licence in April last year from a four year prison term imposed for conspiring to supply cocaine in 2018.
She said that sentencing guidelines suggested a starting point of four and a half years jail for his latest offences but the court could consider an even longer term because of the aggravating factor that he already had a conviction for such offending.
It comes after Justice Secretary Alex Chalk announced criminals may be let off jail because of a lack of space.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said last October: “We are categorical that the most serious offenders should be sent to prison and that anyone deemed a risk to public safety is remanded in custody while awaiting trial.
“We are carrying out the biggest prison-building programme since the Victorian era, and have expanded capacity in the short-term by doubling up cells.”
