A CONVICTED drug dealer who lured a young woman to his hotel room and raped her has escaped an extended jail term.

Rameez Afzal was found guilty in March of raping a 23-year-old woman at the Travelodge in Oxford Road in the early hours of June 4.

But because the 23-year-old was jailed for six years in January after pleading guilty to possession of class A drugs with intent to supply, Judge Richard Parkes QC reluctantly decided not to extend his sentence.

Judge Parkes said despite the strong evidence, a consecutive sentence would be too long and jailed Afzal for five-and-a-half-years at Reading Crown Court on Friday last week, which will run concurrently with his previous sentence for his part in the second biggest drugs bust in Reading’s history.

Judge Parkes said: “To impose a sentence that was consecutive would be a considerably excessive sentence for a man of your age.

“With some reluctance I take the view it ought to be concurrent.”

The court heard Afzal, of Catherine Street in west Reading, had been hanging around the lobby of the hotel at around 4am when the girl had returned from a night out with friends and was unable to find her room.

Afzal offered to help her, but instead took her to his room, where he raped her.

Judge Parkes said: “You took advantage of her obvious ignorance of how to get around the hotel. You had the gall to tell the jury the girl had been desperate for quick sex with you.

“It doesn’t take much imagination to realise how devastating this attack has been on her. It is perfectly plain it has caused her huge psychological damage as well as damage consequently to her career.”

But he bowed to the appeal of Nadia Chbat, defending, for a concurrent sentence. She said: “I would ask you to consider the age of this defendant and take into account the totality of the sentence when an offender is already serving a sentence.”