A DRUG dealer who came from London to Didcot to sell drugs, was jailed for three years after concealing £380 worth of heroin up his backside.

Driss Dekhissi, 21, of Linacre Road in London, was sentenced at Oxford Crown Court yesterday for one count of possession with intent to supply heroin in Didcot last month.

Thames Valley Police officers had spotted him in a silver Rover speaking to a known drug user in Didcot on July 14.

As they approached, he hurriedly hid a package containing the drugs down his trousers in a bid to hide them.

Five days after his arrest, Dekhissi used the evidential toilet at Loddon Valley police station, near Reading, and passed what appeared to be a cellophane package as well as some other wraps.

The package, had contained 38 wraps of heroin, weighing 3.084 grams; two had come loose.

Hilary Neville, prosecuting, said: "Officers came over where they saw this defendant thrust his arm and hand down the back of his trousers.

"Around the vehicle there was drug paraphernalia, three whole wraps, some cling film and, as this defendant was taken out of the car, he threw over a hedge a mobile phone.

"It transpires the mobile phone was found to have drug messages.

"The defendant was taken to the police station and it was five days before he passed the item."

Graham Bennett, defending, said: "He is 21 years old and perhaps his main point in mitigation is that he did plead guilty in the lower court at the earliest opportunity.

"He is somebody who has had some involvement in the use of drugs. But having become involved in the use of drugs it seems he unfortunately started making the wrong decisions to support his lifestyle."

Dekhissi admitted the offence at Oxford Magistrates' Court on July 22 and was sentenced yesterday to three years' imprisonment and ordered to pay a victim surcharge.