A MAN twice caught minding drugs and prohibited weapons has been jailed for five years.

Police raided Steven Beatty's home on April 29 and found cocaine with a street value of £16,500 and 11,000 ecstasy tablets worth up to £111,000.

They also found a stun gun, a gas spray and a pepper spray and drug dealing paraphernalia, said Harry Gow, prosecuting at Liverpool Crown Court.

The search also revealed amounts of cannabis resin, amphetamine and diazapan. Beatty was arrested but released on bail and when police again raided his home in Mosley Common on July 22 they found more of the same drugs.

Sentencing Beatty at Liverpool Crown Court, Judge Sean Duncan said: "These are serious matters. The drugs trade is a wicked and evil trade and does untold damage to people.

"The Crown accept you were not a street dealer but anyone entrusted with that sort of quantity and quality is a trusted member of a team however informally gathered.

"You provided the werewithall for members of that team to re-bag drugs in your premises. You were warehousing or minding these drugs for others, you being a crack cocaine addict."

Judge Duncan told Beatty that he reduced the sentence because he took into account the efforts he has been making while in custody on remand to cure his addiction.

"If you don't, it will get you and you won't be around to see your children mature," he added.

Beatty, aged 33, of Glendale Road had pleaded guilty to possessing the prohibited weapons and 12 drugs offences including possessing them with intent to supply.

Philip Martin, defending, said that Beatty only has one previous conviction for possessing cannabis, and is now trying to turn his life around.