DEALER IN BED WITH DRUGS; Couple in court over heroin stash.

A DRUG-dealer has been jailed after police found him in bed with his girlfriend surrounded by packets of heroin.

There were 35 foil packages of the Class A drug on the bed of Dominic Bailey, 33, and Cheryl Hackleton, 22.

Bailey said that the heroin was his and that he would sell it to whoever wanted it to fund his own habit, said prosecutor Gillian Milton.

Police also found 22 Subutex tablets which he said were his, and some cannabis resin in Hackleton's jacket lying on the floor in her Middlesbrough home.

The heroin packets were each worth pounds 10, and Hackleton said that the cannabis was hers, Teesside Crown Court was told..

Bailey said that he bought an eighth of an ounce of heroin for pounds 70 and he had divided it into bags.

Seven months later police raided their new home in North Ormesby where they found more of the drugs, added Miss Milton.

Rachel Dyson, defending Bailey, said that he turned to drugs at 17 when his mother died and he was left to bring up three younger siblings while their father was at work.

His girlfriend Hackleton is seven months pregnant, and he regretted that he would not be there in the first few months of their baby's life.

She added: "He can't deny that he was intending to supply the drugs.

"He is incredibly remorseful because he knows that he will not see the birth of his child." Rebecca Smith, defending Hackleton, said that the couple had a stable relationship which they planned to resume on his release. She had no previous drugs convictions.

Bailey, of Jubilee Street, North Ormesby, was jailed for 30 months after he pleaded guilty to possession of heroin with intent to supply and possession of Subutex on May 20 last year and January 29.

Hackleton, of the same address, but formerly of Harford Street, Middlesbrough, was given a 12-month conditional discharge after she pleaded guilty to possession of Class C drug cannabis resin on May 20 last year..