A persistent drug dealer who continued offending despite being on bail has finally been locked up.

Mark Freer sold crack cocaine, cocaine and cannabis to regular customers and on one day in last April he received 221 text messages concerning his illicit trade.

Teesside Crown Court heard how the 23-year-old had been arrested when the ambulance service was concerned about his wellbeing and again when he was found asleep in his car after smoking cannabis.

Emma Atkinson, prosecuting, said Freer was arrested in December 2022 after crack cocaine and £1,575 in cash was recovered from his home.

And the final time he was arrested was when police raided his Middlesbrough home and recovered drugs and cash.

She said officers from the North East Regional Crime Unit recovered £2,300 worth of cocaine on July 26 last year and two months earlier a package had been intercepted when police found cannabis addressed to his home.

“Bags of white powder recovered along with £870 in cash, empty snap bags, cannabis and crack cocaine,” she said.

“A phone attributed to him contained text messages offering to sell drugs to multiple contacts.”

Miss Atkinson said there were more than 6,000 text messages recovered and analysis showed that in one hour in April there were 221 messages.

Mark FreerMark Freer (Image: Cleveland Police)

Freer, formerly of Colleton Walk, Middlesbrough, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply cocaine, crack cocaine and cannabis, four offences of being concerned with the supply of cocaine, crack cocaine and cannabis, simple possession of cannabis, between April 2022 and July 2023.

Paul Abrahams, mitigating, said his client had learned the hard way the impact of being in custody.

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He said: “It’s going to be a significant period in custody, he knows that, and he knows that if he continues in the vein thus far, he is going to end up spending his life in custody.

“And what happens when you are in custody, he has missed out on the funeral of his father and he has missed out on spending time with his child.

“No doubt he has learned his lesson.”

Recorder Paul Reid sentenced Freer to a total of five years and 11 months for all offences.