AN alleged drug dealer seen near where police found a buried £1,200 amphetamine haul told a jury he could have been looking for his escaped poodle.

A court heard that Glen Liversidge, 44, who runs markets stalls across East Lancashire, was spotted coming out of a Burnley ginnel with a package in his hand on February 10, 2001.

He claimed he might have been carrying the dog's squeaky toy bone.

Liversidge told Burnley Crown Court he could not remember specific details about that day.

The defendant, arrested twice in October last year, said he had heard nothing about what the police claimed to have seen until "two years after the event."

He had not been questioned about it by officers at the time, his premises were not searched and he was not arrested.

Liversidge, alleged by the prosecution to be the leader in a criminal agreement to supply amphetamine, was giving evidence on the second week of a trial.

The defendant, of Wren Street, denies conspiracy to supply the drug, between January 2001 and February 2003.

Alongside him in the dock was his sister's long-term boyfriend, David Hancox, 39, of St Cuthbert's Street, also Burnley, who also pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Liversidge's former girlfriend Victoria White, 35, of Castercliff Bank, Colne, who is also the mother of one of his sons, yesterday admitted possessing amphetamine.

Judge Raymond Bennett discharged the jury from returning a verdict on the conspiracy allegation previously against her.

Questioned by his barrister, Ken Hind, Liversidge told the jury he was not a drug dealer but a drug user.

He said more than £9,000 taken from him by police was the proceeds from his business dealings.

Liversidge said he ran market stalls in Burnley, Accrington, Haslingden, Gisburn and Clitheroe, dealing in electrical goods, compact discs, DVDs and mobile phones.

He had also run secondhand and graded goods shops on Leeds Road, Nelson, and Colne Road and Briercliffe Road, Burnley.

The defendant said all his business dealings were in cash as it was his "tool" and "money talked."

(Proceeding)