A DRUG addict who sold wraps of heroin and crack cocaine to an undercover police officer in Keighley has narrowly avoided an immediate prison sentence.

Arfan Ali Hussain, 28, was snared under Operation Saucerlake, a sting that took place at various locations in the town from May to September last year.

Prosecutor Paul Nicholls told Bradford Crown Court that Hussain, of Midland Street, Skipton, had pleaded guilty to three charges of supplying class A drugs under the ‘Bobby’ dealing line. He said that on September 13, the officer had seen Hussain selling to a drug user in Keighley who subsequently told him he “gave a good deal”.

After introducing himself to ‘Bobby’, the officer arranged three transactions on September 14, 15 and 20, buying heroin and cocaine from Hussain’s car.

Daniel Penman, for Hussain, said his client had been pressured into dealing just a week before his interactions with the officer after being threatened to pay back his own drug debts related to a cocaine habit.

He said Hussain had been given instructions by others, rather than acting as a “sole practitioner” for the ‘Bobby’ line.

He said: “This is a man who was being told where to go and what to do. He was stuck in a vicious circle that he is only just climbing out of.”

Mr Penman said Hussain had referred himself to the Project 6 drug charity in Keighley, and that reports from the probation service and a psychiatrist had supported the option of a suspended prison sentence and rehabilitation work.

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Roger Thomas QC, said due to the “peculiar and particular circumstances” of Hussain’s case, he could suspend a two-year jail term for two years, also ordering him to complete a nine-month drug rehabilitation requirement.

He said: “The message I have been sending out consistently at this court is that people who supply class A drugs find themselves going to prison.

“You are somebody with a history of mental unwellness in the sense of depression and low mood, probably brought on by your own cocaine use.”