A DRUG dealer caught lurking around an East Lancashire children’s nursery has been jailed for five months.

Police were alerted over concerns that a man had been seen climbing over a fence at Le Petit Monde in Burnley, the town’s crown court was told.

And when officers went to the Bank Parade nursery they detained serial convict Wayne Sawley and found he had a bag of white powder in his trouser pocket, the court heard.

Prosecutor Neil Ronan said when police went to his home in Dall Street, Burnley Wood, they also discovered a larger bag of white powder in the freezer and other smaller amounts of a similar substance.

Sawley also had £300 in his trouser pocket, the court heard, and the powder turned out to amphetamines with a street value of around £1,370.

He admitted to possession of a class B drugs with intent to supply on the basis that he had only been trading in amphetamines among a small circle of friends to fund his own and his partner’s addictions.

Mr Ronan said there was evidence of Sawley having a significant role in drug dealing and him being motivated by financial gain, albeit to pay for his own habit.

The defendant had a long criminal record for theft and burglary and had been sentenced to three years last November for offences including a break-in of commercial premises, he added.

Jailing him, Judge Sara Dodd said: “You were in the grounds of a nursery school with a significant amount of amphetamines.”

Daniel Lister, defending, said his client might have been a recidivist burglary but he was not a recidivist drug dealer. Sawley had become addicted to amphetamines after weaning himself off heroin, he told the court.

The judge ruled Sawley’s latest jail term must be served consecutively to his November sentence.