Mohammad Alturk, 39, an asylum seeker from Jordan, was caught with eight wraps of cocaine after police stopped him driving erratically in an uninsured BMW. He walked free from Basildon Crown Court with a £120 fine and a £48 statutory court surcharge.
Alturk, who lives in Hinckley, Leicestershire, was stopped in Rayleigh on December 4 last year. Police spotted a BMW 3 series late at night and realised Alturk – then living in Southend – was not the insured driver.
Police chase and arrest
The court heard police watched him drive “erratically” along Crown Hill towards London Road, before taking “a sudden, unindicated right turn into Down Hall Road”. Sentencing judge Recorder Suki Daddha said Alturk “took off at speed” and “failed to stop for the officers, who had their sirens and lights on.”
As he tried to evade them, they saw him throw a plastic bag out of the car window containing the eight wraps. Alturk was apprehended when he turned into a cul-de-sac. He told officers he had just purchased the drugs for £500 for his own use, claiming he was using two to three wraps per day at that time.
Previous incident and sentencing
It later transpired he had been picked up under similar circumstances two months earlier in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. In both instances, he was initially suspected of drug dealing but ultimately dealt with for simple possession. The Oxfordshire case ended with a community resolution, meaning he was never charged.
Alturk pleaded guilty on Thursday (August 20) at Basildon to possession of cocaine and driving without insurance. He told the court it had been a friend’s car. Unrepresented by a lawyer, he told Recorder Daddha he turned to drugs during a period of poor mental health and stress. Alturk said: “I thought it would help me but it didn’t. I became sick. I couldn’t sleep.” He said he had now stopped using them.
Outside court, Alturk smiled and gave a thumbs up, declaring: "All the best for all British! Love!" The court heard he arrived in the UK in July 2024 and his asylum application was currently "frozen", pending the outcome of the case.
