A BOURNEMOUTH drug dealer’s suspended sentence will not be referred to the Court of Appeal in an effort to increase the punishment.

Qamar Anthony-Sampoh, 21 and of St Peter’s Grove, London, received a two-year prison term, suspended for two years, last month after admitting two charges of possessing heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply in the Dorset town.

As reported the case was put forward to the Attorney General's Office (AGO) to consider whether it was 'unduly lenient' and should be challenged.

However, a spokesperson for the AGO has now confirmed that the case will not be referred following "careful consideration" by the Solicitor General Lucy Frazer QC MP.

The AGO spokesperson said: "A referral under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme to the Court of Appeal can only be made if a sentence is not just lenient but unduly so, such that the sentencing judge made a gross error or imposed a sentence outside the range of sentences reasonably available in the circumstances of the offence.

"The threshold is a high one, and the test was not met in this case.”

As reported, at around 2.20pm on November 22, 2019, a police officer on patrol in the area of Grove Road saw two known class A drug users who appeared to be waiting for someone.

They were then involved in an exchange with someone in a vehicle and the car, a Volkswagen Polo, was subsequently stopped by the officer in Derby Road. The vehicle then drove off into the grounds of a nearby property.

Officers attended the premises and Anthony-Sampoh was seen to discard something over a fence. He was detained for a drugs search and the item he had thrown was recovered.

It was found to be a bag containing around £500 in cash. The defendant then alerted officers that he had swallowed three wraps of class A drugs and had further drugs concealed on his person.

Officers subsequently found a further 50 wraps of crack cocaine and 16 wraps of heroin.