A YOUNG father who “naively” took up Class A drug dealing to earn money to support his family has been spared jail.

Patrick Gabor, 21, of Back Emily Street, Keighley, was 19 when he became involved in dealing crack cocaine and heroin on the streets of the town.

His partner was expecting her first child, and to make some money to support the family he asked to borrow an amount from a man named only in Bradford Crown Court as ‘Carney’.

Carney refused, but instead told Gabor he would pay him £100 a day to deal drugs.

Gabor’s flat was used to ‘bag up’ the Class A drugs, with him helping out.

In October 2017, officers saw what they thought was a drug deal take place and pursued Gabor who ran away.

As he was running he threw a bag away, and when eventually caught told police: “You’ve got me, I won’t cause any trouble.”

In the bag, police found 55 wraps of heroin and 24 wraps of crack cocaine, with a street value of around £300.

At his flat, police found a ‘bagging up operation’, and Gabor’s DNA was found on the bags.

He had only been drug dealing for two or three days when he was caught.

The court was told Gabor played a “significant role” and had been financially motivated to take up drug dealing.

He was also caught with a significant quantity or wraps, and allowed his flat to be used for the preparation of drugs.

In mitigation, Jayne Beckett said this was Gabor’s first offence of any kind, and his only one since.

She said: “He has stayed completely out of trouble for the past two years.

“He has a partner and they were to become parents at the time, she was seven months pregnant.

“They were desperate to find accommodation to start a family and was the financial desperation that led to this.

“He does not cause trouble, he didn’t before and he hasn’t since. He is not a user and abuser of drugs.

“They now have two young children and have tried to be as responsible as they can be as a young family unit.

“He works at the family car wash and there is the possibility of full time employment in the near future.

“He feels nothing but remorse and poses a very low risk of reoffending. He has taken responsibility for his actions.”

There had been a two year gap between the offence and Gabor appearing in court, as it took 11 months for him to be charged and summonsed to court. He failed to turn up at magistrates court, and it took several months for him to be arrested.

Sentencing Gabor, Judge Jonathan Gibson said: “You were 19 at the time of the offending, and you had been street dealing.

“You had also been involved in preparing - or bagging up - the drugs.

“Clearly this was not your operation, it was that of someone you knew.

“You have no previous convictions; you are not a sophisticated drug dealer.

“You were naive at 19. You are of good character and your only blemish was not attending at magistrates court when you should have done.

“You have shown a determination not to reoffend and admitted it from the start.

“When people deal Class A drugs they can expect prison sentences, and custody is a proper punishment for what you have done.

“But, you have demonstrated rehabilitation and have strong personal mitigation, so I will suspend your sentence as I do not think you will be before the courts again.”

Gabor was handed a two-year sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to obey a six month electronically monitored curfew from 10pm to 6am.