A pair of county lines dealers have been convicted of a string of offences, including stashing drugs in Dundee in a car which had been stolen 270 miles away.
Brandon Collins, 24, and Joshua Olumuyiwa, 31, stood trial for a week at Forfar Sheriff Court and were found guilty of being concerned in the supply of cocaine.
Olumuyiwa – who has more than 20 previous convictions – is already serving a seven-and-a-half year sentence imposed at Manchester Crown Court for a terrifying masked machete attack on his ex in a busy pub.
Snared after police chase
The court heard that on June 14 2019, police tried to pull over a Ford EcoSport in Dundee.
The car, which had had its registration plates switched for fraudulent ones, was being driven dangerously by Olumuyiwa.
Officers followed the vehicle along Pitkerro Road, Albert Street, Forfar Road, Dura Street and Balmore Street.
In his bid to evade police, Olumuyiwa mounted a kerb, narrowly avoiding pedestrians and drove on the wrong side of the road, overtaking a bus.
Officers eventually seized the vehicle and found a Nokia phone, £397 in cash, 0.25g of heroin in a paper and a tub containing 9.47g of cocaine – worth between £500 and £1,000 – and 8.43g of heroin.
Officers later discovered the car had been reported as stolen by its owner, a woman from Bolton, two months earlier.
Guilt
Both men were unanimously found to have been concerned in the supply of cocaine between April 1 and June 14 in 2019, at locations in Dundee including Hilltown Terrace, Clepington Street, South Union Street, Albert Street and Sleeperz Hotel.
HMP Perth inmate Olumuwiya was convicted unanimously of being concerned in the supply of heroin over the same time period, as well as driving dangerously, with fraudulent plates, during the police chase and resetting the car.
Both men were found guilty of missing court hearings in connection with the offences in September 2022.
A charge of having sex with a 15-year-old girl while in Dundee was not proven.
Solicitor advocate Bill Adam, appearing for Collins, said his client lives in Manchester and has served an eight-month sentence for driving while disqualified since committing these offences.
Olumuwiya’s solicitor advocate Lewis Kennedy said his client was jailed for 90 months on June 15 2022.
Sheriff Paul Brown deferred sentencing until December 18 for reports to be prepared.
Olumuyiwa was disqualified from driving in the interim.
Perth Prison offences
Olumuwiya, from Manchester, returned to the dock in Perth Sheriff Court on Friday to admit separate charges of possessing an unauthorised mobile phone and heroin in Perth Prison on May 4.
Fiscal depute Stuart Hamilton said of a cell check: “The accused was slumped in a chair and appeared to be drooling from his mouth.”
Officers found a wrap of 1.2g of heroin, with a prison value of between £75 and £150.
On August 16, after prison staff had reclaimed prison-issue mobile phones distributed during the pandemic, officers visited his cell and after removing his lower clothing, an illegal phone fell “from between his legs.”
He was punished internally through restriction to personal cash, canteen and association.
Sheriff William Gilchrist imposed prison sentences of six months for the heroin and two months for the phone.
Machete terror
Last year, Olumuyiwa was jailed for the terrifying domestic assault.
On October 8 2021, the balaclava-clad attacker drove to the The Park pub in Northern Moor, near Manchester, where his ex-girlfriend worked and lived as pub manager.
She was outside having a cigarette with friends when Olumuyiwa and other two men emerged from a car and chased the group into the pub.
He was swinging a machete while threatening to kill the woman and then hit her with the weapon on the side of her face.
Olumuyiwa fled but was arrested about four hours later, while hiding in a garden.
The woman suffered a gash to her head which has left a permanent scar and she has since left her job and no longer lives at the pub.
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