A DRUG dealer claimed he had turned to crime after falling behind with his mortgage payments, Bolton Crown Court heard.

Mushtak Umarji, who had pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of cocaine and heroin with intent to supply, was jailed for 18 months. Hanifa Patel, prosecuting, told the court how, at midday on November 18 last year, a plain clothes police officer was keeping watch on a man in Ulleswater Street, Bolton, and saw Umarji meet up with him before entering and coming out of a house in neighbouring Dorking Close.

Umarji was approached and searched and 11 wraps of heroin and six wraps of cocaine were found on him, together worth £638 as well as £105 cash.

Umarji told officers he had only been handling drugs acting as a runner, passing them from one dealer to another for a few days as he was struggling to keep up with his mortgage payments.

Jane Deakin, defending, said Umarji, aged 36, of Eskrick Street, Bolton, is the sole carer for his mother and although he has had an escalating cocaine addiction, has now been drug free for six weeks. Jailing him for 18 months Recorder Michael Murray told him: “The supply of Class A drugs is a scourge on society.”