A man received a two-year suspended prison sentence and unpaid work for a drug offence, after a group coerced a 13-year-old boy to deal drugs for them.

Abdur Rakib, of Sclater Street, Spitalfields, admitted being involved in the supply of class A drugs and and was sentenced at Guildford Crown Court on Wednesday (January 20).

The 21-year-old was part of a group of three men who coerced a teenager into selling drugs by contacting him via Snapchat, asking him if he wanted to make "easy money".

Rakib arranged to meet the boy in Tower Hamlets on December 27, 2019, before driving him to Guildford, Surrey, where he was kept in a room to sell heroin on the group's behalf.

However, the teenager's mum was able to contact him and inform the police, who attended the address and found him unharmed.

Rakib was arrested on the next day and charged.

Detective Constable Ben Stone from the Central East Command Unit CID said: “Rakib was part of a group which targeted a young child and pressured him into criminality with the lure of easy money.

"Thankfully, due to the quick actions of the child’s mother and the police, the boy was located safe and well before he sank further into the clutches of this unscrupulous group.

“There is no such thing as easy money – it always comes at a price, and where criminality is involved, that price will mean being put before the courts to face the consequences.”

Rakib received a two-year prison sentence, suspended for a year, and 200 hours of unpaid work.

The two other men in the group of drug dealers received the same sentences on November 26.

Shahed Ahmed, 21, and Imdad Hussain, 20, both also from Tower Hamlets, received further sentences of 14 days imprisonment, suspended for two years, for the possession of cannabis.

The drugs were given up and destroyed.