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The son of former health secretary Patricia Hewitt publicly apologised to her in court today after he was fined £250 for buying cocaine.
Telesales worker Nicholas Hewitt Birtles said sorry to the MP and his father, who is a crown court judge, after he was caught with a £150 lump of the class-A drug.
The 21-year-old told police the drugs were for “personal use” after he was arrested in a car this month in Camden.
At Highbury Corner magistrates' court today it emerged he had received two previous — but unspecified — police cautions.
Defence solicitor Anthony Burton told the court: “Of particular distress to him is that as a result of this matter significant publicity has been attracted which has fallen on his family.
“He is deeply distressed about the consequences of his actions so far as his family is concerned. So through me he apologises publicly to them.”
Prosecutor Emily Maunders said Hewitt Birtles, whose father is Judge William Birtles who sits at Snaresbrook crown court, was spotted in the passenger seat of a car in Camden Square, shortly after 8pm on 19 September.
She said: “There was a man standing outside the passenger door and as officers approached they noted the defendant threw something Arrested: Nicholas Hewitt Birtles arriving at court today where he pleaded guilty out.
"It was found to be a blue and white plastic bag wrap. This contained a cube-sized lump of white powder. He stated it was for personal use.
“It was tested at the police station and confirmed as cocaine. He was tested and was positive for cocaine.”
Hewitt Birtles was arrested and spent the night in custody.
Mr Burton said: “He immediately fell on his sword and accepted it was a controlled drug. As far as drugs are concerned he is not a regular user, he is a recreational user and readily admits he had purchased on this occasion this small quantity of cocaine.”
Chairwoman of the bench Ruth Lipton imposed a £250 fine with £85 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.
She told him: “We have taken into account your guilty plea. We are not going to deal with you by way of a conditional discharge because you have had two cautions.”
The court heard that Hewitt Birtles, of Camden, had started a telesales job two weeks ago and earns about £240 per week.
Today he spoke only to confirm his personal details and his guilty plea to one count of possessing a class-A drug. Neither of his parents was in court.
Ms Hewitt, Labour MP for Leicester West, spent two years as health secretary before stepping down in 2007.
Reader views (15)
Can we not use Agent Orange on the poppyfields?
- Albert Hall, hove england
Albert, we'd be better buying the stuff off the farmers and giving it away to addicts here; it wouldn't solve their addiction, but crime and prostitution would plummet, and the Afghan farmers would have a living. British soldiers are dying pointlessly while the Taleban can paint them as causing poverty to Afghans.
The market here would collapse, because there'd be no scarcity value for heroin, and so no point in risking prison for no profit. This would contain the addiction problem ,and reduce it to a medical issue, not a social-criminal one.
There's also a world shortage of opiates for legal anaesthetics, believe it or not, while we are destroying crops that would provide an honest living to the growers.
- Mdj E10, london uk, 30/09/2009 22:42
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I cant imagine why people want to take drugs of the type we read about,cocaine etc. What do the drugs do apart from leading to trouble in one form or another. Surely the users must be aware of this.
T H Leeds
- Thomas Hayes, Leeds UK, 30/09/2009 18:29
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Well done Magistrate Ruth Lipton. The pathetic sentence of a £250 fine has given encouragement to the defendant to repeat his offence, to every drug dealer to carry on his wicked trade and to any other user or potential user to go on to buy drugs. I would say that the Magistrates and Judges have done more than anyone else in this country to enable the illegal drug trade to flourish.
- John, Highgate, 30/09/2009 18:09
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Spot-on Claire, in London! -and good idea Albert Hall. -Alternatively, why not legalise it? -That would make the dealers and middlemen redundant. -Getting it on prescription would eliminate any 'glamour' attached to drug use. -The authorities have tried everything else and nothing works. -Time to start thinking 'out -of -the -box?
- Huggy, Cumbernauld Scotland, 30/09/2009 16:56
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No problem for Hewitt's boy, mummuy will have no trouble paying his fine with the money she has made working as a consultant for an American private health company, a job she aquired after losing her job as health minister. This is the same Patrica Hewitt who told protesters outside the royal free hospital in hampstead that the loss of 100 beds would be a positive thing in the long term. So far the royal free is £10 mill in debt and the 100 urgently needed bads are still empty. Right now three x labour health ministers, Hewitt, Clarke, and Milburn are now working for three different American private health companies in England. The NHS is safe in their hands? I don't think so .
- James, Manchester England, 30/09/2009 16:14
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No matter who she is, or what she is, it is her son in trouble and that deeply hurts a mother. A sad tale that spreads across all of society here. When is the real clampdown on drugs coming. Not a pussyfooting job, nor the Singapore death sentence way but very hard on the hidden men and the pushers. Start with life imprisonment. Can we not use Agent Orange on the poppyfields?
- Albert Hall, hove england, 30/09/2009 15:44
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Not that it's any excuse at all, but with a mother like that, I think I'd want to block the world out too.
- Minority Working Person, London/England, 30/09/2009 15:38
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Oh, how nice of the poor little underprivileged lamb to apologise. Any ordinary, working class person would have been fined much more than this and potentially locked up ! It's about time the so called 'ruling classes' got their just desserts from the decent electorate of this country. She'll probably get it receipted and put it on her expenses..............
- Andy Woodhead, London, ENGLAND, 30/09/2009 15:14
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what's with all this apologising? does anybody care?
- Stephen Martin, london, 30/09/2009 14:50
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"Once again, one law for the average 'schmo', and another for the double-barreled surname offspring of the legal & politically well-connected..."
There's no evidence to suggest that at all - he was caught with an amount small enough to back up the "recreational use" claim and he pleaded guilty, so £240 plus costs is pretty much what I'd have expected.
Or perhaps you can cite cases of "average schmos" getting tougher sentences despite the circumstances otherwise being identical?
- Michael, London, 30/09/2009 14:42
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He got of light because he was getting it for mommy,which explains a lot about why she needed to steal taxpayers money with her huge expense claims.
- Dave, london, 30/09/2009 14:00
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£250 fine is a joke, probably less than he spends on an 'average' night out!
- Claire, London, 30/09/2009 13:43
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"retail sales representative"
what kind of silly made up job title is this?
- Bruno, London, 30/09/2009 13:41
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How much greater would his fine have been had he not been the son of a former cabinet minister?
- R.F.York, Yorks, UK, 30/09/2009 13:20
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Once again, one law for the average 'schmo', and another for the double-barreled surname offspring of the legal & politically well-connected...
- Scrappy-Doo, London, 30/09/2009 12:51
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