A drug dealer sobbed as he was locked up after £1,500 worth of cocaine was found hidden in a fridge in an outhouse.

Unemployed Zack Reeves was selling the drug to help fund his own cocaine fuelled ‘benders’ alongside the money he made from buying and selling cars and motorbikes.

The 28-year-old also had £3,629 stashed in a cupboard when police raided his Middlesbrough home in the summer.

Teesside Crown Court heard how Reeves told officers where they would find the drugs when he answered the door to his home.

Ian West, prosecuting, said three bags of cocaine were found in the fridge and a specialist officer valued the drug to be worth £1,500 on the streets.

Zack ReevesZack Reeves (Image: Cleveland Police)

Reeves, of Downside Road, Middlesbrough, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply Class A drugs and possession of criminal property following his arrest on August 22 this year.

Andrew Nixon, mitigating, said the time the father-of-three had spent on remand had impacted on the entire family.

“It is a very rude awakening to him the effect it has had on the whole family,” he said. “The selling of cocaine is to finance his drug habit as well as making a little bit on the side selling cars and motorbikes.

“It is more a case of him going on ‘benders’ rather than daily usage.”

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Recorder Andrew Latimer sentenced Reeves to three years and four months for both offences.

He said: “When the police arrived, you volunteered to police where the drugs would be found, it is plain that you kept those drugs away from the children in a place they were unlikely to go.

“The fact is, Class A drugs should never be anywhere near a house where children would be – I think you understand that now.”

A proceeds of crime act hearing will take place next year in relation to the money recovered from his property.