A heroin gang was behind bars last night after an undercover police operation which saw a detective bartering children's clothes for drugs.

A policeman, known only as Dave, became a regular customer at the gang's Darlington drugs den for four months, said Tim Bubb, prosecuting.

Most of the three women and two men had children, so sometimes he bartered clothes for heroin, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Couples Kerry Emerson, 22, and Paul Tomlinson, 27, and Beverley Swales, 29, and Gary Spence, 29, were dealing from flats in Greenbank Road, Darlington.

Swales gave Dave two £10 wraps of heroin for a fleece jacket.

She was still selling him heroin on the day she was jailed for three years last May for earlier drug dealing, said Mr Bubb.

On several visits, Dave saw them "tooting" heroin by heating it and inhaling. But his refusal to join in led to Tomlinson accusing him of being a police officer.

Dave kept his cover by saying that it was because he was driving.

Sometimes, when they had no heroin at the flats, they arranged for special deliveries, said Mr Bubb.

Jeffrey Hunter, defending, said they were heroin users who did not make substantial amounts of money by selling it to friends and acquaintances.

Swales, Tomlinson, Emerson, Spence, and Joanne O'Brien, 27, of Warwick Square, Darlington, pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of heroin between April and August last year.

Judge John Walford told them: "Most, if not all, of you have children and how any responsible parent can continue to abuse Class A drugs in the way that all five of you did defies belief, because each of you have had the opportunity to overcome your addiction but have chosen not to do so."

Tomlinson was jailed for six years, plus a year and a month left from a previous sentence.

Swales was jailed for four years, plus seven months from a previous sentence.

Emerson was jailed for three and a half years and O'Brien for six months. The judge confiscated Tomlinson's car and £88 cash