Labour councillor for West Green ward Ishmael Osamor has been sentenced to a two-year community service order after pleading guilty to three charges of possession of illegal drugs with intent to supply, and a fourth of possession.
Osamor, 29, was caught with the drugs by security staff as he attempted to enter last September’s Bestival festival in Dorset. He had quantities of the Class A substances cocaine and ecstasy and Class B cannabis and ketamine on his person.
The councillor, who is the son of Edmonton MP Kate Osamor, must carry out 200 hours of unpaid community service work and undergo 20 hours of rehabilitation activity.
The government lists the penalties for possession of Class A drugs as “up to seven years in prison, an unlimited fine or both” and for Class B possession as “up to five years in prison, an unlimited fine or both”.
Osamor’s barrister reportedly told the judge at Bournemouth Crown Court, where the hearing took place: “He made a mistake, he knows he is very lucky.” The judge, Stephen Climie, reportedly told Osamor that had he had an “intent to supply for profit” he would have been sentenced to “between three and four years in prison.” The prosecution had accepted Osamor’s claim that he and some friends had clubbed together to buy the drugs, worth approximately £2,500, and were not intending to sell them at Bestival.
Osamor won his council seat following the de-selection of sitting West Green councillors by ward branch Labour members, including Eugene Ayisi, who was brought up on the Broadwater Farm estate, which is located in the ward. Osamor was reportedly nominated by his mother to become one of the new West Green candidates. Kate Osamor is shadow secretary of state for overseas development. In May, her mother Martha Osamor was nominated by Jeremy Corbyn for a life peerage.
A quick calculation is that Cllr Osamor’s arrest was a few days (I think ten at most) before he went to the panel for inclusion in the candidate lists.
There is a standard question at these panels, asking whether there is anything in the potential candidate’s history which might ‘bring the Party into disrepute’.
The question was either not put to Mr Osamor, or he must have grossly misrepresented himself. Were Sir John Junor still around, we’d hear him say: ‘I don’t know, but I think we should be told.’
[…] was carrying a *lot* of drugs. The judge accepted his claim that he and his friends had clubbed together to buy the £2500 worth of cocaine, ecstasy, ketamine […]