A HONDA worker who sold cocaine to partying friends has been jailed for two years.

Richard Cooper, 35, bought the class A drug in bulk and dealt to his friends as they partied around the country.

The Cheltenham man, who has worked for Honda for over 15 years, also arranged a deal with a friend of a friend over messaging app WhatsApp – sending his customer a picture of where he’d left the cocaine on the buyer’s wheel.

Jailing him for two years, Judge Jason Taylor QC said: “There is no doubt in my judgement that you underestimated the gravity of what you were doing, but the fact remains this was persistent and calculated dealing over a sustained period of time.

“And it wasn’t, as I’ve said, just to friends, but also to friends of friends and doing that in a club scene is a particular scourge because drugs there are a real problem.

“It is all too easy for a mate of yours to introduce somebody to you who they describe as another mate and in an instant someone else has got their hands on class A drugs and it could even be somebody who’s experimenting for the first time.”

Swindon Crown Court heard police had pulled over Cooper’s car in December 2019. Inside the vehicle they found underweight half-gramme deals, each estimated to be worth around £50. The drugs were 80 per cent purity – high for powder cocaine sold on the street.

Messages on Cooper’s iPhone showed him arranging to supply cocaine to his friends. They included sales of up to half an ounce of the class A drug, worth £900 to £1,400 according to police estimates.

In a candid interview, the defendant admitted involvement in dealing to friends. He suggested he’d been doing it for five years and had bought in bulk to split the drugs between his friends.

Rob Ross, defending, said his client couldn’t understand why he’d said what he did in the interview. He admitted being concerned in supplying cocaine for a year between late 2018 and when he was caught.

Cooper had been addicted to cocaine and gambling. He had been partying around the UK and Mr Ross said some of the money paid into his bank account that was queried by prosecutors was in fact him being reimbursed by friends for legitimate travel expenses.

Mr Ross asked the judge to spare his client an immediate prison sentence, pointing to the 15 years he had spent working at Honda and the fact he could lose a large redundancy package if he were jailed. His partner was expecting another child and Cooper, who had been an England badminton champion at 17, was the main breadwinner. “He has managed, I think, to start to rehabilitate himself.”

While Judge Taylor noted the mitigation in the case, he said appropriate punishment could only be met by immediate imprisonment. He imposed two years’ custody.

Cooper, of Bridge Street, Cheltenham, admitted being concerned in the supply of cocaine and possession of cocaine. He had no previous convictions.