Judge bans drug dealers from Weston-super-Mare resort

Drug dealers who have blighted Weston-super-Mare have been made the subject of anti-social behaviour orders which ban them from the area for up to five years.

The first wave of Asbos was made by Judge Jamie Tabor QC at Bristol Crown Court yesterday following the success of Operation Nissan.

The operation was launched last summer following a series of complaints to the police by residents and shop owners about drug use.

Weston is thought to be targeted by drug dealers because of vulnerable people attending the drug rehabilitation programmes based there.

During the operation undercover police officers posed as addicts and were sold heroin and cocaine by unsuspecting dealers.

Most of the orders exclude the law-breaker from the whole of Weston but some of the criminals will be allowed into restricted areas of the town so they can visit family. The orders were activated immediately.

As well as the five-year ban, all those subject to the order can only possess a mobile telephone that is registered to them to stop them using untraceable pay-as-you-go phones favoured by drug dealers.

Yesterday eight orders were passed but police expect a significant number more to follow.

Police wanted the orders to be 10 years long and also ban them from the Bristol area but the judge decided to make the ban half that length.

Acting Detective Inspector Martin Longden said: "We are really pleased with the result. We feel the judge has supported us and the community of Weston-super-Mare.

"It sends a clear message out to drug dealers that if they come to Weston-super-Mare they will prosecuted, convicted and banned from the town."

■ Nils Sorensen, who had pleaded guilty to dealing heroin from a heart-shaped box in a silver Volvo around the town centre, was sentenced yesterday.

He was caught after selling heroin and cocaine to undercover police officers on numerous occasions.

Judge Tabor likened his behaviour to an ice cream seller "dealing in drugs rather than ice cream."

The court heard that Sorensen, who has lived in Weston for 35 years, was a respected businessman before a tragic event saw him start taking drugs.

Paul Light, defending, said: "He had never done drugs and was against them. In January a cataclysmic event happened that had a great effect on him.

"He ran over a man who had been lying down drunk in the road – the sight of his body was horrific.

"He was physically shocked and emotionally traumatised.

"This was exacerbated when he was informed he was the only man responsible for the man's death, although he was cleared of any blame at an inquest. Up until that point he had a car dealership and his life was a success. He then went down the slope very rapidly.

"He says when he was taken off to remand for the first time he snapped out of the false world he had created for himself."

Sentencing him to four years Judge Tabor told Sorensen: "I acknowledge that something took place in your life that had a dramatic effect upon it.

"You are a man local to Weston-super-Mare and have been successful and it is almost inexplicable that someone in your position and your age finds themselves driving up and down the streets of Weston with a large tin of drugs hawking your wares.

"This was not just a man trying to feed a habit, this was a business and I have to sentence you on that basis."