The Portsmouth News reports Dutch national Pieter van Oorschot was jailed for two years and nine months after he was caught with the near-import quality cocaine at work.

Van Oorschot was MD of Portsmouth-based agency NRS Recruitment until it was dissolved in July this year, according to Companies House records.

Van Oorschot was stopped by police in Portsmouth while driving a Mercedes and had four small packets of cocaine on him and two mobile phones – one with messages revealing he was involved in street dealing.

When police searched his office at Challenge Enterprise Centre in Sharps Close, Copnor, a judge said they were ‘startled’ to find a huge lump of cocaine.

In total the defendant had 147g of the class A drug at 85% purity, while prosecutor Timothy Moores said the high purity “suggests that he has been supplied by someone relatively close to import level”.

Jailing the defendant, recorder Simon Foster said: “In March 2018 police followed a Mercedes motor vehicle of which you were the driver. They stopped it. There they found four small packets of cocaine. You were arrested. There were two telephones. One was of particular significance.

“They must have been startled, perhaps they weren’t, because when they got back to your office in Challenge Enterprise Centre, opened a desk drawer, they found nearly £14.5k of cocaine and snap bags and further (packs) of cocaine.”

Van Oorschot, of Eastney, South-East Portsmouth, admitted possession with intent to supply class A and also admitted fraud in relation to doctoring a job applicant’s documents, the court heard.

Jason Halsey, mitigating, said he was a “young man with a drug addiction”.

“He’s run a business, the business gets into debt. He gets into debt with his dealer. He’s offered an easy way out. He made the rather stupid and obvious decision to deal drugs.

“What he wants to do is to become that young man portrayed in the references that he once was, and turn his back on peddling drugs and peddling misery.”

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