A YOUTH has appeared in court to learn his fare over his role in county lines drug dealing.

He is the last of three defendants to be sentenced over the illegal enterprise which was rumbled when police raided an address in Warrington.

The 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named or identified for legal reasons, appeared before Warrington Magistrates’ Court after pleading guilty to possession with intent to supply crack cocaine and heroin.

He also admitted being concerned in the supply of crack cocaine and diamorphine and possessing criminal property.

The facts of the case were outlined by Michael O'Kane, representing the prosecution, who told the court how Cheshire Police executed a drug raid at an address on Dalton Bank in Fairfield on September 7 last year.

The warrant was executed through intelligence gathered as part of Operation Apollo, a county lines drug investigation.

During the raid, police found a number of wraps of class A drugs, as well as two county lines ‘graft’ phones and around £515 in cash.

Three people were arrested in connection with the warrant, and all three were later charged with the same offences.

Karen Leigh, then aged 53 and of Dalton Bank, was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court on November 1 to 22 months in prison.

Abdirahman Ahmed, then aged 18 and of Hartington Road in Toxteth, was handed a 24-month suspended sentence before the same court that month.

The youth, of the Liverpool area, admitted his role in county lines drug dealing, involving crack cocaine and heroin, as well as to possessing a graft phone.

As a result, magistrates sentenced him to an 18-month youth rehabilitation order, including 10 youth rehabilitation requirement days, which involves unpaid work and a ‘crime and consequences’ module, and a three-month electronically monitored curfew.

A youth rehabilitation order is a community sentence within which a court may include requirements designed to provide punishment, protect the public, reduce re-offending and offer reparation.

He must also pay costs to the Crown Prosecution Service of £400 and a statutory victim surcharge of £26.