Drug dealing scientist smiles as she walks free from court after sobbing in the dock clutching a cuddly toy

Toma Augustaityte smiled as she walked free from court just minutes after she sobbed in front of a judge while clutching a cuddly toy.

The 27-year-old scientist was caught with two bags of cannabis and hundreds of pounds of cash stuffed in her underwear when police stopped her car.

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Phone messages revealed she had been dealing drugs for five months and had been trying to buy a kilo of cannabis.

Second time caught with cannabis

Augustaityte, a scientist with a London-based diagnostics company, admitted possessing cannabis with intent to supply when she appeared at Warwick Crown Court.

The court heard it was the second time she had been caught with cannabis.

Recorder Balraj Bhatia QC handed her a 12-month community order when she appeared last Friday (23 July).

He said: “The aggravating feature is the dealing over a five-month period and the interest in up to a kilo.

“Had she been committed for being concerned in the supply over that five months, that would have taken the sentencing tariff higher.

“But she was only charged with possession with intent to supply on that occasion.”

‘I am not going to send you prison’

Agustaityte, who hails from Coventry, tearfully clutched a stuffed toy dog throughout the 15-minute hearing.

The judge added: “This has the potential for an 18-month prison sentence after trial, but I am going to give you full credit for your plea of guilty.

“I am not going to send you to prison. The reason is that I believe you were just in a bad period of your life, influenced by someone who was a bad person.

“You have broken away from that, and what you have been able to achieve is to pick up the pieces of your life, and you are trying to get your life back into order.

“You can count yourself fortunate that you were charged simply with possession with intent.

“Had you been charged, as you should have been, with being concerned in supply, the sentence would have been higher.”

The court heard she was caught on 25 September 2020 when police stopped her for a broken light on her car as she drove through Coventry.

Graeme Simpson, prosecuting, said could smell cannabis, and a search revealed two bags of weed under the driver’s seat.

He said: “When she was searched at the police station police found £480 in cash in her underwear, and drug paraphernalia was later at her home.

“The cannabis found in the car weighed 32 grams, with a street value of around £200. Messages on her phone showed she had been supplying cannabis over a five-month period and had been trying to obtain up to a kilo of the drug.”

Mr Simpson said Augustaityte was currently subject to a community order with 200 hours of unpaid work imposed last November last year for possessing cannabis and a lock knife.

Haroon Khattak, defending, said: “She was in a relationship with someone she does not wish to identify.

“This was the trigger into the world of drug supply, initially driving this man and then driving herself.”