AN addict who hid a dealer's stash of heroin and crack cocaine in a cupboard at his home was jailed for five years yesterday.

Kevin Wright, 20, said he was forced to store the drugs after he saw a man hide £2,444 of heroin in a lamp-post.

He said he removed the drugs and was delighted when he found it was heroin, to which he was addicted.

But five minutes later, as he left the scene, he was stopped by police, said Nigel Wray, prosecuting at Teesside Crown Court.

Two months later, police executed a search warrant at his home and found the stash of drugs in the cupboard and also materials used to wrap drugs.

Wright, of McReaton Street, North Ormesby, was jailed after he pleaded guilty to possessing heroin on September 23, last year, and possessing heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply on November 16, last year.

Christine Egerton, defending, said that after Wright found the drugs in the lamp-post, he was approached in Middlesbrough's Albert Park by a man who demanded to know his address.

Other men arrived at his flat and insisted that he stored drugs there.

She said: "He is clearly the sort of man to be targeted by others. He has since been forced to move several times which lends credence to his account."