A man who bought cocaine for himself and three friends has been jailed for 21 months.
Mark Rowland, 25, was arrested after police tried to pull over a car he was driving because they suspected a passenger wasn’t wearing a seat belt.
Rowland drove off and the car was later found abandoned.
But police were able to trace him after his fingerprints were found on 14 wraps of the Class A drugs that were left in the car.
Silvia Dacre, prosecuting, told Burnley Crown Court the car failed to stop on Bridge Street, in Rishton, and officers later found it abandoned with 14 wraps of cocaine in the driver’s side footwell.
She said 7.66 grammes of cocaine with a street value of £280 was found.
Mrs Dacre said Rowland handed himself into police two weeks later but originally claimed the cocaine had nothing to do with him.
After police found his fingerprints on the wraps of drugs, he later pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine with intent to supply.
Rowland, of Hill Street, Baxenden, has 18 convictions, including a suspended sentence for cultivating cannabis from November 2010.
Last July he was given a suspended sentence for possession of fighting dogs.
Martin Hackett, defending, said Rowland had put money together with three others in order to buy cocaine which they had all intended to use.
Judge Graham Knowles QC sentenced Rowland to 21 months in prison. He accepted that the drugs would have been divided up but said Rowland already had a bad record.
He added: "The courts will never regard cocaine as a trivial drug. It is frequently a deadly drug and causes total misery.
"You know – and I know – that profits from it go to some of the most vicious people in society."
