A heroin addict who walked out on her parents four years ago is back home after police arrested her in a drugs swoop, a court was told yesterday.

Dawn Moffatt, 21, was the driver of a car which police were tailing because one of the two male passengers was a suspected dealer.

They followed it from Stockton to Thornaby where they saw something being handed over to a pedestrian, said Michael Bosomworth, prosecuting. When the police stopped the car they saw a man throw something at her, and she put a package down her jeans which turned out to be heroin with a street value of £660, Teesside Crown Court heard.

The men were also arrested but they ware not charged.

Moffat was frank about her own involvement, but not about the men.

She said that she panicked when the police appeared.

Tim Roberts, defending, said that she and her family were now completely reconciled and they had spent a five-week holiday on the continent.

After her arrest she went for help to the Addictive Behaviour Services, successfully completed two computer training courses, and she had formed a relationship which her parents approved.

Mr Roberts said: "She left home four years ago, and her mother says that they are now back to what life used to be like before she became involved with drugs."

Moffatt, of Butterfield Grove, Eaglescliffe, was put on probation for two years after she pleaded guilty to possession of a Class A drug with intent to supply it to another on January 21.

Judge Peter Fox QC told her that he trusted she was putting her addictive drugs and association with people involved with them behind her.