Peter Caswell was caught with thousands of pounds worth of drugs when a flat he had been given to help his reintroduction to society was searched last October. Caswell was on licence at the time after serving half of a nineyear sentence for an armed raid at a packed ex-serviceman’s club on Teesside in May 2003. A court heard that the career criminal had been paid £100 to look after the amphetamine, cut it and package it for a man he refused to identify when he was arrested. Judge Peter Armstrong gave Caswell a one-year sentence for the drugs offence, and ordered him to serve a further three years from the armed robbery sentence. Defence barrister Brian Russell told the Teesside Crown Court judge that Caswell, 57, did not consider himself to be a drug dealer, despite his guilty plea. “He does accept he was an instrumental part of the dealing process,” he said.
“He is surprised to find himself being dealt with for possession with intent to supply. “He has a record consistent with what might be described as a career criminal – he has been committing offences with regularity from the Sixties – but I would not wish to say he was institutionalised, although his record does point towards that.” The court heard that Caswell was first convicted at the age of eight for trespassing on a railway, had his first drugs offence in 1971, and was jailed for robbery in 1986. In December 2004, he was locked up along with another man for the shotgun robbery at Thornaby Ex- Serviceman’s Club, near Stockton, during which £3,479 was stolen. The pair – wearing a balaclava and a motorcycle helmet – burst into the bar and threatened drinkers before holding the gun at the head of a steward at the club. They threatened to shoot Geoffrey Harris and took the money from a safe before making off in a stolen car, Teesside Crown Court heard at the time. On Friday, the court was told that Caswell was released from his sentence on licence in late May last year, and placed in the flats in Marton Road, Middlesbrough, in July. Weekly health and safety checks were carried out to make sure the former prisoners were complying with a strict regime, and on October 3, drugs were found in his accommodation.
Amphetamine worth £2,280 was discovered in a tub in the kitchen, and two bags each worth about £25 were located in his car and in a bag on a set of scales. Judge Armstrong said: “It was a foolish thing to do so soon after being released when he had this time (on licence recall) hanging over his head.”
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