Lancaster teen hid heroin in long johns

Darren James Nield, 19, from Lancaster, has now been jailed for 30 months after admitting returning to the county to deal drugs.

Officers found him with £240 of heroin and crack cocaine stashed inside his long johns when they raided a flat in Lancaster in August.

He admitted he was selling drugs and was granted bail on the condition he lived outside Lancashire.

But three months later Nield was spotted running away from a VW Golf and throwing a box containing five large bags of cannabis, with a total weight of 168g to the floor.

He was arrested and admitted he was in debt to drug dealers and had agreed to take the cannabis from Lancaster to Preston.

Richard English, defending, said Nield had started offending after his long term relationship “imploded spectacularly.”

The defendant committed the offences while he was subject to a community order for attacking her.

Mr English said: “His mother says the first thing she will do when she sees him is give him a clout and tell him this has to stop.

“This was motivated by money. You can understand how this can come about – a young man who is not in employment and not in good health.

“He sees other people who are in this trade who are doing very well.

“He accepts he has to go to prison.

“With his health difficulties and all that prison has to offer he is in a salutory position.”

Recorder Anna Vigers, sentencing, said: “You are only 19 years old and yet you find yourself in very serious trouble because you chose, for what I accept is a limited period last summer, to involve yourself in dealing class A drugs.

“The reason that it is extremely serious is that class A drugs kill people and they cause enormous amounts of misery not just to the people who use them but to everyone who is affected by that trade – people whose homes are burgled, or people whose shops are stolen from by people who want to buy drugs from people like you.”

She jailed Nield, now of Wellington Street, Garston, for 28 months for possession with intent to supply heroin and cocaine with a further two months for possession with intent to supply cannabis.