A heroin dealer has been jailed for seven years after police caught him red handed as he divided up a pile of the drug into street deals.
Neil Densham was found with 19 grams of heroin, a set of digital scales, and a batch of small plastic bags some of which had already been filled.
He was under the influence of heroin when his drugs den above an Exeter flat was raided by police who found him slumped on the bed after knocking down his door.
Densham gave a jury an elaborate story about dividing up the drugs so he could reduce his reliance on heroin in a self imposed control programme.
He was found guilty of drug dealing and jailed after the jury were told he has a long history of drug dealing and has served a string of previous sentences for it.
Densham, aged 34, of Dryden Road, Exeter, denied possession of a class A drug with intent to supply but was convicted and jailed for seven years by Recorder Mr John Williams at Exeter Crown Court.
He told him:"I have no doubt that you committed these offences, albeit as an addict, with your eyes open. You knew what the risks were and you knew the potential sentence.
"Drugs of this sort have a disastrous effect on society. Those who use them have to commit crime to pay for them and the cost to the public is enormous."
During a two day trial the jury heard how police raided Densham's flat above the Flying Horse pub in February last year and found him slumped on his bed and apparently under the influence of drugs.
Officers found a large bag of heroin, part of which had been divided into smaller quantities and packed into plastic wraps of the sort which are normally used for street dealing, where it could have been worth more than £1,000.
The prosecution said Densham was living on £70 a week disability benefit and would not have been able to have bought the drugs in bulk unless he was dealing.
Some of the plastic bags had already been filled with £10 street deals while others were waiting to be used and four plastic ties were found on the floor.
Father-of-two Densham said he had been an addict who was a heavy user of heroin at the time and was working with the drugs service to tackle his addiction.
He was due to start a course of residential rehabilitation at the Cedars Unit of the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital and was collaborating with his key worker to reduce his usage in the preceding weeks.
He told the jury he spent a week at the Cedars shortly after his arrest and has been using a substitute to heroin ever since.
He said at the time of his arrest he was using up to two grammes of heroin a day and had bought a much larger amount of three quarters of an ounce a few days before his arrest, of which the drugs found on his dresser were the residue of what he had not used.
He said:"I bought it and paid £400 for it. I was on sickness benefit but I also sell scrap when I can get hold of it, mainly copper and brass. I do quite well at times.
"I was getting ready to go into the Cedars and was trying to move from injecting to smoking heroin because I had agreed with my key worker I needed to cut down what I used.
"The drugs I bought were in a package of cling film but I took some out and weighed it in smaller packages so I knew how much I was going to take. I had some I was going to take a breakfast, lunchtime and tea.
"I was not planning to sell the drugs. I was just preparing it for myself."
