A FEMALE drug dealer who supplied ecstasy pills to clubbers was jailed for three years yesterday.

Teesside Crown Court was told that Nicola Jones, 34, from Redcar, also got her pensioner father involved in storing 600 ecstasy pills.

Jones, a mother-of-three, said that she enjoyed the club scene and she used ecstasy instead of alcohol.

Her father, Michael Jones, 65, kept about £3,000 worth of ecstasy pills, cocaine and £40 cash in a safe at premises where he worked, said Simon Phillips, prosecuting.

He initially denied he had been given them by his daughter, but his mobile phone showed an incriminating text message from her. She was later arrested in a car with Gary Hall, 24, who admitted being an ecstasy supplier for two months, earning between £300 and £400 a week.

Nigel Soppitt, in mitigation, said: "She said that she danced on a weekend, enjoyed the club and music scene and it almost goes hand-in-hand with those who do, tending to use ecstasy."

Robin Turton, for her father, said she had supplied him with money for drink and cigarettes and he felt unable to end his assistance to her in storing the drugs.

Judge Peter Bowers told her: "You have to bear the whole responsibility for involving your father in your own sales of ecstasy.

"It's one thing to take ecstasy but it's a very different thing when you embark on selling ecstasy or possessing it intending to sell it to others."

Jones, of Lord Street, Redcar, was jailed for three years after she pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of a Class A drug.

Her father, of Bath Street, Redcar, who the judge said was put upon by his daughter, was jailed for 18 months for the same offence.

Hall, of Wykeham Close, Redcar, who also admitted supplying ecstasy and possession of a nine-ounce bar of cannabis resin, was jailed for four years and three months.