A Judge has criticised the police for dropping drug dealing charges against a man who was found with heroin in his body and four different mobile phones.
Judge Erik Salomonsen said he felt he had been treated with discourtesy and 'ill used' because he was offered no explanation about why the case was not pursued.
Lanre Olewole, aged 20, was arrested in a taxi in the centre of Exeter during an intelligence led police drugs operation in September.
Cannabis was recovered from the taxi and three wraps of heroin which he swallowed were later recovered while he was in custody.
Police found £2,226 cash in his bag along with four phones and a number of SIM cards which could be interchanged in them.
Olewole refused to give officers the PIN numbers of the phones and refused food and drink in an attempt to delay the recovery of the heroin inside his body.
He was originally charged with drug dealing but the prosecution wrote to defence solicitors offering to accept pleas to simple possession of cannabis and heroin.
Judge Salomonsen asked for an explanation of the decision but was not offered one. Judge Francis Gilbert, QC, the presiding judge at Exeter Crown Court had earlier refused to sentence on the basis of simple possession.
University student Olewole entered a basis of plea in which he said the drugs were for his own use and the money came from high value shoplifting rather than heroin dealing. This was accepted by the prosecution.
Olewole, from South London, admitted possession of criminal property, heroin and cannabis and was jailed for eight months. He will be released immediately because he has already served the sentence while on remand at Exeter Prison.
The judge ordered the £2,226 and the drugs be forfeited.
Judge Salomonsen asked for a senior police officer to give him an explanation of their handling of the case and said:"I have expressed astonishment at the position in which I am placed. As I have said, I feel ill used that the facts are not put fairly and squarely before the court by the prosecution.
"There has been a complete blank from the prosecution. The very least one would expect is the courtesy of some explanation. I wish to know why I have been placed in the position I have."
Mr Ian Graham, prosecuting, said Olewole was arrested on the night of September 9 during an anti drug operation in the centre of Exeter.
He was seen getting into a taxi in the presence of a known drug user and the vehicle was stopped by police, who found cannabis in a side pocket of the car and the money in Olewole's bag.
He later claimed the cash had come from high value shoplifting rather than selling drugs and the prosecution were not challenging his assertion.
Mr Jonathan Barnes, prosecuting, said the offer to reduce the charges had come unsolicited from the police and CPS and been accepted by defence solicitors.
He noted there was no analysis of the drugs, nor weights for the items seized and said it is possible the evidence may have been mislaid.
He said Olewole is a hard working student who is hoping to return to his university studies and put this episode of his life behind him."
