POLICE found hard drugs with a street value of almost £2,000 and a stash of cash after following a car in the early hours, a jury heard.

Burnley Crown Court was told John Handley, 54, got out, slung a package of cocaine to the ground and tried to run away.

Officers then searched his home on Gisburn Road, Barrowford, and discovered a bulk bag of heroin in a magazine rack and £3,500 in a bedroom closet.

John Wishart, prosecuting, told the court Handley, who was then claiming £65 a week benefits, had been out dealing in cocaine and was going to peddle the heroin, worth £1,380.

Handley, who has been using heroin for 30 years but says he functions normally when taking it, alleged he bought the cocaine for his own use and thought the heroin belonged to his dealer. He claimed he was trading in bootleg tobacco and fake designer clothing and told the court the business could turn over half a million cigarettes a month and make about £3,500.

Handley, who threw a glass of water over a detective when he was being questioned at the police station, said he did not explain to the police about the drugs and cash because he was suffering hepatitis and had not been well. He added he was not awkward or belligerent and was normally well-mannered.

The defendant denied possessing cocaine with intent to supply but was convicted by the jury. He also pleads not guilty to possessing heroin with intent to supply and an alternative allegation of possessing heroin. The panel, which is still deliberating those charges, was sent home for the night by Recorder Anthony Sander yesterday.

Mr Wishart said police in an unmarked vehicle had followed the defendant's car on Wheatley Lane Road, Barrowford, in March 2000. After Handley threw the package, he was grabbed and pinned against a car door by an officer. The brown substance in the wrap was found to be 3.07 grammes of cocaine, with a street value £300.

Just over 25 grammes of heroin was discovered by the settee in Handley's house, as well as nine plastic bags with the corners cut off. The property also had a safe.

Giving evidence, Handley said at the time he had been selling illegal tobacco mostly from France and Gibraltar and had been planning to transfer the business to the Internet. He also dealt in copy designer clothing which he bought in Manchester. Handley said it was unusual to keep a large amount of cash in his house as he would usually bank it, but it was not unusual to have that amount of capital. He was having problems financing his drug habit and the cash would have been used for his overdraft if he had put it in the bank.

Handley said he did not put the money in the safe as people knew what he did 'for a living.' He said if he was robbed he would be made to open the safe so he hid it instead.

The defendant alleged he had been in the car with his dealer Sandy Glover, who he bought both heroin and cocaine from. He said at the time he was using more cocaine then heroin. Handley claimed he functioned normally on heroin, but cocaine was a drug people could get obsessive about and nothing else mattered in their lives.

Handley told the jury he had been out to buy the cocaine in Duke Bar, Burnley, and it was for his personal use. He said he did not even know the heroin was in his house and he thought the drugs, plus a pair of scales found in the laundry bin, belonged to Sandy Glover.

He claimed he had not intended to sell either cocaine or heroin and had not explained the situation to the police because he had not been well.

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