A DRUG dealer sold heroin and crack cocaine while living at his grandparents’ house.

Former Worcester Bosch worker Daniel Curtis turned to dealing the class A drugs on the streets of the city to pay off a debt, carrying on even after he had been caught by police.

The 28-year-old father, of Ploughman’s Close, Worcester, had already admitted being concerned in the supply of heroin and crack cocaine, two counts of possession of crack with intent to supply and two of possession of heroin with intent to supply when he was jailed at Worcester Crown Court on Friday.

The supply of the drugs for which he was initially arrested took place between December 29 last year and January 15 this year.

James Dunstan, prosecuting, said officers were on mobile patrol in an unmarked car at St Paul’s Street in Worcester on Monday, January 14, watching someone they knew to be a drug user standing in a phone box.

The user came out and met with Curtis and Aiden Jimenez, now serving a jail sentence for his role in the dealing.

Officers saw Curtis handing something to another drug user in what was ‘clearly an exchange of some drugs for some cash’.

The two men then met further drug users in Lowesmoor Wharf by which time police had gathered enough evidence to arrest the two men. Curtis was arrested with £135 in cash and two mobile phones.

Jimenez was arrested with £194 in cash and his home address was searched.

Police found 134 wraps of heroin and 495 wraps of crack cocaine, the combined value of the drugs placed at £6,250. Curtis’s fingerprints were found on the drugs discovered at Jimenez’s address.

On Wednesday June 12 this year police became aware of suspicious activity in Rainbow Hill in Worcester while they were on unmarked patrols, observing what they considered to be drug supply hotspots.

Officers saw a man getting off his bike and going out of sight with Curtis. Police arrested him with 91 wraps of crack cocaine in £10 street deals and 43 wraps of heroin, also in £10 deals.

Police searched Curtis’s grandparents’ home in Rainbow Hill where he had a room. There they found digital scales and a safe containing 611 wraps of drugs in £10 deals worth more than £6,000 and £480 in cash.

Curtis gave a ‘no comment’ interview to police. Jimenez, on licence at the time he was dealing, has already been jailed for four years and nine months.

Nicholas Berry, defending, said his client had no previous offences for drugs and no offending at all on his record for nearly nine years and that there were no aggravating factors.

Mr Berry also said his client had pleaded guilty at the first available opportunity and had tested positive for cocaine and opiates on arrest, supplying the drugs to which he was addicted.

“He has always worked and worked at Worcester Bosch for a period of time,” said Mr Berry. Mr Berry said the father-of-two was dealing drugs to pay off a debt but wanted to come out of prison with a legitimate job so he could provide for his family and be a role model.

Curtis had said to Mr Berry: “I don’t want my kids seeing me like this.”

Judge Jim Tindal jailed him for 40 months, saying:

“You have got to resist that pull back to the drugs. If you don’t you could end up spending the rest of your life in prison.”