A DRUG-USER tried to rip off his dealer by using a worthless novelty £20 note a day after he was tricked into buying an empty package instead of crack cocaine,

Alan McCabe was attempting to seek revenge on Andrew McLeod after he had been fooled into handing over cash for a "wrap" that contained nothing.

But when McLeod realised the note was a fake - carrying an image of a cartoon character instead of the Queen's head - he hunted down Mr McCabe.

Teesside Crown Court heard that the 28-year-old - known as Herman - launched a savage attack on Mr McCabe and left him covered in blood in a car park.

But McLeod lost his mobile phone during the attack and when Mr McCabe took it to the police to make a complaint, they were able to trace the owner.

McLeod initially denied it, but after being picked out in an identity parade, he confessed to what his barrister described as "an unpleasant piece of violence".

The court heard that Mr McCabe, 28, called a number for Herman - whom he did not know - and made arrangements for the crack cocaine deal in Hartlepool.

A third party enlisted by McLeod carried out the transaction, but Mr McCabe later discovered he had been tricked and the package was empty, said Patricia Mancina, prosecuting.

Mr McCabe tried calling his dealer to complain, but failed to get an answer until the following day when he hatched the plan to use the Betty Boop £20 note.

When McLeod's "runner" showed him the note, he stormed after Mr McCabe, grabbed him by the throat and punched him several times in the face.

He then dragged him into the car park of The Powlett pub, smashed his head against a wall and demanded the drugs back.

Paul Cleasby, mitigating, urged Judge Les Spittle not to jail McLeod, of Skelton Street, Hartlepool, after he admitted unlawful wounding on December 1.

Mr Cleasby said McLeod had stayed out of trouble since the offence and, despite having previous convictions for drugs offences and dishonesty, had never before been violent.

But the judge told him: "This wasn't a spur of the moment act of violence, and this wasn't a single blow out of irritation, temper or provocation - this was deliberate attacking.

"It was a drugs deal that went wrong and you went deliberately to attack him, to punch him for what he had done, and it would be a dereliction of my public duty not to mark or punish this sort of violence on the streets."

MCleod was jailed for nine months.