A DRUG supplier was caught when two beat policemen walked past and heard him setting up a deal on his mobile phone.

Kevin Richard Smith, 40, was sitting in a relative's car with the window down when he asked the caller: "How many rocks do you want, mate?"

His cousin, Wayne Coates, spotted the policemen and alerted Smith, but the pair were pulled from the Vauxhall Vectra and taken in for questioning. Smith claimed he had been ordering a cup of tea, but three rocks of crack cocaine were found in his sock when he was searched at the police station.

Teesside Crown Court heard how the pair were arrested in Waterloo Road, Middlesbrough, last May.

Smith, of Aubrey Street, Middlesbrough, admitted conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and was jailed for three-and-a-half years yesterday.

Coates, who faces the same charge as well as one of possessing an offensive weapon, has been on the run since the pair were due to stand trial last December.

Rod Hunt, defending, urged the judge to look at the differences in the attitudes of Smith and Coates when considering his sentence.

Judge Peter Fox QC said the sentence had to be more stringent than the two-and-a-half years Smith received in 2000 for possessing amphetamine with intent to supply.