A NORTH-EAST drug dealer was caught after one of his customers died, a court heard yesterday.

Michael Verrall was jailed for four-and-a-half years at Teesside Crown Court.

The court heard that Verrall was arrested when a man died after taking a cocktail of heroin and valium.

Jamie Hill, prosecuting, said Verrall, 24, of Rockingham Street, Darlington, was one of two men who had supplied heroin to the man on the night he died.

Verrall had supplied drugs on behalf of another man - who he referred to as his "boss" - for three months between December last year and March this year.

The man who died had initially been supplied drugs through Verrall, said Mr Hill, and one night in January went to a house where he met the defendant.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, began an argument with the dealer over poor quality drugs and then assaulted Verrall, said Mr Hill.

Verrall had a bag of heroin with him but after the attack could not find it and assumed the other man had taken it.

He rang his "boss" who came to the house, beat up the drug addict and demanded to know where his drugs were.

Mr Hill said the missing heroin was found down the back of a sofa and the boss felt so guilty about beating the addict that he gave him a free bag of heroin.

Those drugs were a contributory factor to the man's death, said Mr Hill.

It was after taking these drugs and those sold to him by Verrall, taken together with valium, that the man went to sleep in a house in County Durham and did not wake up, he said.

After the death, Verrall and his boss were arrested and questioned on suspicion of the man's murder, said Mr Hill. No further proceedings were to be taken against Verrall, he said.

While on police bail, Verrall went on dealing for eight weeks after the man's death and it was during this time that he sold drugs to an undercover police officer and indicated he could get more.

Defence barrister Graham Gaston said Verrall was himself an addict and had acted as a "gofer" for the dealer, being paid in drugs.

He said Verrall, who admitted supplying a Class A drug, was now drug-free