Luck has finally run out for an ex-county lines drug runner who “lost everything overnight”.

Jamie Osbourne had a job, a family and children, but suddenly lost his work in 2019 and slipped into a class A drug addiction.

He was approached by dealers for the Lucky county lines operation in Swindon, and struck a deal that saw him supply drugs on their behalf to feed his habit.

But he was snared by undercover officers in 2019, and given a suspended sentence by Judge Jason Taylor QC.

Three years later he was hauled back in front of Judge Taylor for breaching his suspended sentence.

Swindon Crown Court was told the now 32-year-old borrowed a Skoda Fabia on February 14, putting down a £900 deposit.

But he never returned it to the owner and it was reported stolen, said prosecutor Ellen McAnaw.

Summarising, Judge Taylor said: “The reality was, on February 28, police stopped a vehicle, they thought it was stolen, it was, he had no insurance, and in his pocket he had an improvised shank.”

Adressing the court via an intermittent video link, Ms McAnaw added: “He said to the officer that he had a knife for his own protection.”

Osbourne had 17 convictions for 26 offences – and two previous convictions of possessing bladed articles, which triggered a mandatory minimum sentence of six months custody.

The court heard that while on his suspended sentence, Osbourne did just 10 of the 300 hours of unpaid work he was ordered to do and half of the 20 rehabilitation activity days.

“He was suspended on a few occasions but we tried to encourage him to attend unpaid work,” probation officer Tanya Wilshire told the court. She added his attitude was “of concern.”

Defending, Emma Handslip said he had stayed out of trouble for 29 months, and that he carried the improvised knife made with two blades taped together because his home had been targeted and he was assaulted.

“This was somebody who worked. He had a family and children, and through loss of employment for the first time, dipped into Class A drug use and lost everything overnight.

“He is still on a script and is still working with Turning Point. What they are saying is that he is still motivated.

“He’s had a change in offender manager, and whilst he has to take responsibility, whilst the picture has been given to the court that he was encouraged, there was no enforcement.

“This is somebody who started to struggle. It isn’t his finest hour, he’s committed an offence.”

But Judge Taylor said committing multiple new offences was an issue. “You will have told him how lucky he was on the last occasion to get the order he did for the offences he was up for. He should have been on his mettle.

“He had every motivation. He had a suspended sentence over his head. He has led a charmed life already that he didn’t go to prison.”

Sentencing Osbourne, of Dixon Street, the judge said the breach of the order and lack of compliance “came about because of your attitude”.

“Given that report from probation and given you are back before the court when, frankly, you should have been on impeccable behaviour, I take the view the time has come where it has to be immediate custody.”

He activated 20 of the 24 months in the suspended sentence, and added an extra five months for the knife possession offence, after guilty plea discount was taken into account.