Judge gives drug-dealing NTU graduate a harsh lesson about the realities of prison life

A judge underlined the harsh realities of life behind bars for a Nottingham university graduate when he spared him an immediate prison sentence for selling drugs. Judge Staurt Rafferty KC told Valters Bolsaks that the smart suit and tie he wore to the bench at Nottingham Crown Court would be exchanged for clothes worn “100 times before by 100 different people”.

He warned him about “living in doors and never stopping screaming” in prison as he tore a strip off the 24-year-old for dealing high-purity cocaine and cannabis to- and finance higher education. And he said he was “with some reluctance” not to jail the recent Nottingham Trent University construction management graduate.

Judge Rafferty said: “We now live in an age where young people can’t wait for anything, they have to have it now. So instead of working at a house or behind a bar, you took it upon yourself to sell drugs to other people to support yourself through university.

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“Drugs have consequences for everyone from the people who sell them to the people they sell them to because of all the crimes they commit to get the money to buy the drugs.

“You are an intelligent man, you were perfectly aware of what you were doing. You wanted as much money as you could get.

“Imagine what it’s like in prison. They’ll take that nice suit and tie you’re wearing and replace it with clothes that have been worn 100 times before by 100 different people.

“You will be locked in a cell with someone you have never met, forced to use the same toilet, locked up 23 hours a day. Living in doors and screaming that never stops, drug abuse, abuse of inmates by other prisoners.

“I guess you didn’t think about that when you were dealing drugs, did you? All I have to do is drop a word when I condemn you. One word, three little syllables and that’s what will happen to you. This word is “suspended”.

Eunice Gedzah, prosecuting, said police stopped a car Bolsaks, of Derby Road in the city centre, was driving on September 18, 2021. She said a large ball of cannabis was hidden in the defendant’s shorts and that bags of white powder were also seized. , cash and a mobile phone.

The prosecutor said further searches at one address turned up more drugs, scales and more than £4,000 in cash. Ms Gedzah said the police expert said the three types of illegal substances found – cocaine, cannabis and ketamine – had a combined value of more than £8,000 at their peak.

Bolsaks pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply Class A and Class B substances and was jailed for one year, suspended for two years. Rawaid Javed, mitigating, said his client got involved in the sale “out of naivety and immaturity” as he was “struggling to pay his living expenses”.

He said: “He takes full responsibility for his actions, makes no apologies and is apologizing through me. There was no lavish lifestyle, his substance abuse increased during the pandemic.

“He has secured a job as a site manager with a company in Leicester who are unaware of the issue. Mr. Bolsaks tells me in a way that these offenses were a blessing for him because they acted as a wake-up call.”