Drugs team found dealer’s stash in sofa

8:33am Thursday 21st August 2008

A teenageR has been locked up for 16 months for guarding a stash of heroin and crack cocaine.

Officers found 80 wraps of the Class A drugs hidden in the sofa of a house where Stacey Ross was staying, a court heard.

Ross, 19, was arrested when members of Bradford District Drugs Team swooped on a property in Catherine Street, Keighley, last September.

Prosecutor Ewan McLachlan told Bradford Crown Court that Ross pleaded guilty in June to possessing heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply.

Mr McLachlan said the police forced their way into the property at 7.55am, and found crack cocaine with a street value of £453 and heroin worth £308.

Ross told police she was looking after the drugs for people she was in fear of. She said she must have been "set up" because the drugs only arrived the previous day.

Jayne Beckett, defending, said Ross was now motivated to sort out her life and wanted to make a fresh start in Bradford and to train as a motor mechanic.

Judge Roger Scott said Ross had a history of breaching community orders and would fail any he passed. He said "warehousing" was an important feature of the drugs trade.

He sentenced Ross to 16 months in a young offenders' institution.