by Keith Hunt

A young mum who agreed to supply cocaine for her boyfriend while he was on holiday has been spared jail after she helped to convict him.

Emma Flood, 23, admitted her involvement and agreed to give evidence against Joseph Quinlan.

The 22-year-old tyre fitter, of Harolds Way, Bexleyheath, was convicted by a jury and has now started a six-and-a-half year prison sentence.

Flood, mother of 17-week-old baby, wept with relief as Judge Martin Joy suspended 12 months imprisonment with 40 hours unpaid work.

“The sentence I impose will have an effect on someone else,” he said. “That person is only 17 weeks old. You have a job and some would say it is the most important job in the world. You have a baby to look after.”

Admitting conspiracy to supply drugs, Flood, of Balmoral Road, Gillingham, told at Maidstone Crown Court how she ended up using the cocaine herself (similar to that pictured above) instead of dishing it out to addicts from a flat in Greenhithe.

Quinlan asked her to take over his drug-dealing while he went to Florida for two weeks. He gave her a supply of cocaine and a mobile phone and lent her his car.

Maidstone Crown Court, where Flood was convicted

But she said she ignored calls on the “work” phone and became so stressed she started using the cocaine herself.

Quinlan returned from the holiday and went to the flat at Serenity Court with a locksmith because she failed to respond to his calls.

Police arrived as the lock was being drilled out on September 25 last year. When officers entered they found 65 grams of powder containing cocaine worth just over £5,000.

Iestyn Morgan, prosecuting, said the case against Quinlan was supported by messages between the couple.

Quinlan texted her saying: “I need my stuff.” In another text he told her he was outside the flat, the lock was being drilled and the police were there.

He told her: “Hide everything. Hide down the toilet.” She replied: “OMFG.”

Quinlan, she said, was selling drugs to make more money. He was living with his father but then rented the flat in Greenhithe. He told her he would pay her to deal the drugs while he was away.

“I was not entirely happy about it but I had no income,” she added. “I felt as though I had to do it.”

Judge Joy said drugs were “filthy and degrading”.