A rough sleeper has been jailed after he was caught red-handed selling heroin in an alleyway in the centre of Exeter.
Police on patrol in the Guildhall Centre spotted a group of three people sneaking down Parliament Street, which is known as one of the narrowest thoroughfares in Britain.
They found 57 wraps of heroin in a coat owned by homeless Darren White which he had lent to a friend to shield her from the cold weather in January.
White was living in a tent near Exeter Quay and living from hand to mouth and selling small amounts of drugs to fund his own addiction.
He admitted the drugs were his but initially insisted he was not selling them, even though one of the other people arrested in the alleyway had an empty syringe in his pocket.
White, of no fixed abode, admitted possession of heroin with intent to supply and was jailed for two and a half years by Recorder Miss Sarah Vaughan-Jones, QC at Exeter Crown Court.
She told him:"You now accept you had these drugs with the intention of supplying others. It was street dealing to fund your own use of heroin and you would receive quantities of drugs in return."
Mr Joss Ticehurst, prosecuting, said two police officers on patrol near the Guildhall Centre in Exeter became suspicious when they saw three people going into Parliament Street on the morning of January 28, 2014.
They found 57 wraps of heroin in a Kinder Egg in White's coat and he admitted they were his but said they were all for his own use.
He said he had bought them in bulk for £200 from savings which he had taken out of the bank the day before. At the time he was on £143 a week Jobseekers Allowance.
The drugs would have been sold for £10 a wrap on the street. A text message also showed he had been asked to supply drugs.
Mr Rupert Taylor, defending, said White was a victim of a troubled background which had driven him to use drugs and be forced into dealing to pay off debts.
He said:"He was not a man who enjoyed an exalted lifestyle. He was living in a tent in the middle of winter and what small profit he made was in the form of brown powder. He was living from hand to mouth and taking the risk for others."
Mr Taylor said White has weaned himself off drugs while awaiting sentence in jail and wants to retrain so he can earn an honest living on his release.
Ends
