Torrington drug dealer Phillip Cusiter jailed for dealing Valium tablets

A Torrington drug dealer has been jailed after blowing a chance to go straight and being caught selling Valium tablets.

Poster designer Phillip Cusiter was already subject to a suspended sentence when police found 200 tablets of the drug in a package in his pocket after he was arrested for shoplifting.

Cusiter was sent on a drug rehabilitation course rather than jailed in 2011 and had got himself clean. But he returned to drug dealing when he was no longer under the supervision of probation officers.

Cusiter, 41, of Well Street, Torrington, admitted possession of Diazepam with intent to supply and was jailed for a total of ten months by Judge Francis Gilbert, QC, at Exeter Crown Court.

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This included the activation of an eight month sentence passed in October 2011 when he admitted dealing cannabis from his home in Torrington.

At the time of his arrest Cusiter had moved from North Devon and was living on a traveller's site known as Middle Tree Park in Haldon Forest, Kennford, which is close to the Exeter Racecourse.

The judge told him: "This case is very sad. When you were under supervision you were said to be a reformed character with a promising future but you relapsed and must now go to prison. Having been given the opportunity to get away from drugs, you have completed your supervision and then committed further drugs offences. That means the suspended sentence will be activated."

Janice Eagles, prosecuting, said Cusiter was arrested at a Sainsbury store in Exeter for suspected shoplifting and told police he was carrying Valium, which is properly called Diazepam.

She said messages on his phone showed he had been dealing the drug to a friend who had sent him texts asking if he had any "Vallys".

Peter Seigne, defending, said: "My client is an intelligent and articulate man who is realistic about what the court will do and does not seek a further assessment by the drugs service."

He said the tablets had a value of around 70 pence apiece, meaning that the total amount was worth only £140.