A WOMAN drug dealer who kept customers' benefit books as security escaped jail yesterday because she has reconstructed her life.

No longer is York mother-of-three Deborah Patterson, 32, a drug addict and trafficker, but she and her family have moved to a new secret address and she has found a job, said Judge Jonathan Crabtree at York Crown Court.

He said that he did not think it would do anybody any good to lock her up and would only be a waste of public money it being no fault of hers that the case had taken over a year to be heard.

During that time, said Taryn Turner, appearing for Patterson, she had come to her senses and broken free of the opiates addiction which had blighted her life.

After hitting rock bottom in the summer of 1999 she was no longer hooked and was determined to rebuild her life.

Patterson, formerly of Crombie Avenue, York, admitted being in possession of amphetamines with intent to supply in May 1999 and also pleaded guilty to being in possession of amphetamines for her own use last August.

Judge Crabtree ordered Patterson to forfeit £700, part of the proceeds found on her or at her home.

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