Teenage cocaine dealer with handgun sentenced – 3 court hearings and 3 conferences all held virtually post lockdown – Ben Thomas defends.
Ben ThomasThe defendant, Amaan Mirza was caught in possession of a loaded Glock handgun, 16 rounds of ammunition and thousands of pounds worth of cocaine in Middlesbrough on two separate occasions.
Despite the covid lockdown parties in the case managed to deal with the case remotely.
Ben Thomas was defence counsel.
Mr Thomas held a number of video prison conferences with his client and was able to negotiate a favourable basis of plea with the CPS at the guilty plea hearing at Teesside Crown Court on 30 April via the “Cloud Video Platform” (CVP)
Further video conferences and hearings followed resulting in the sentence hearing on 1 July where Mirza was sent to a young offenders institution for 6 years and 4 months.
Judge Howard Crowson acknowledged that Mirza was likely to have been acting under others’ direction – this was reflected in the basis of plea and Mr Thomas’s mitigation and this resulted in a significantly lower sentence.
for media coverage of the case click here
Contact Ben’s clerks
Andrew Thornton on 0113 213 5202