A Newport drug dealer has been sentenced to three years and nine months in prison for selling drugs and also for driving without a licence or insurance.

Michael Bristow, 36, was arrested by Gwent Police in April for driving without the appropriate licence and without insurance. This led to the police discovering his mid-scale drug operation.

Prosecutor Emma Harris said: “Michael Bristow was pulled over at 9am on April 28, 2024 on Chepstow Road in Newport by PC Daniel Harrison due to the way he was driving.”

Mrs Harris then told the court that it was this driving incident which led to the police searching his address, at Broadmead Park in Liswerry, where they discovered a large amount of drugs including cocaine and cannabis, as well as sums of cash and other ‘drug paraphernalia’.

Mrs Harris said: “In the property they found £1000 cash, snap bags of white powder, a Nike shoe box where inside they found white powder, tubs of cannabis and two pouches of cannabis mixed with tobacco.

“At the address they seized a number of phones, specifically two Nokia and a number of iPhones. They also found weighing scales with had traces of green vegetable matter.

“The white powder was found to be cocaine, and the green vegetable matter was cannabis. Messages discovered on the phones were analysed to represent the supply of class A drugs.”

The messages included the defendant sending “text bombs” which read “Rocketfuel active drops all day” and receiving messages such as “fire coke g” and “got any deals bro?”.

Upon sentencing, Judge Recorder Christian Jowett said: “It was these messages that show Mr Bristow definitely had control of the drugs line and was well aware of the scale of his operation.”

The defendant pleaded guilty on all five counts, three of which included drug offences. These were as follows: the possession with intent to supply cocaine, the offer to supply the class A drug cocaine and possession of cannabis.

The two driving offences were driving a motor vehicle otherwise than in accordance with a licence and using a motor vehicle on a road without third party insurance.

The judge considered in his sentencing that despite Michael having 20 previous convictions of 78 various offences, this was the defendant’s first time with intent to supply drugs. The length between his offences was also considered, as well as a 25 per cent reduction due to Michael’s early plea.

This led to defendant Michael Bristow being sentenced to 45 months in prison and having six points added to his driver’s licence.