DOPEY drug dealers were caught with £7,500-worth of pills in the boot of their car – when police stopped them for speeding.

Driver Craig Wallace, 34, was branded an idiot by a judge for attracting attention to himself by doing 90mph on the A19.

He was stopped with friends Alan Foster, 43, and Mark Richardson, 28, in the Skoda Octavia on the outskirts of Hartlepool .

Teesside Crown Court heard on Friday that police found 1,500 diazepam tablets hidden in a bin liner stuffed in the boot.

The trio had been paid to travel to Manchester to pick up the delivery to pass on to a dealer in the North-East, the court heard.

The men, all from Hartlepool, admitted possessing Class C drugs with intent to supply, but were spared jail sentences.

Judge Simon Bourne-Arton said he was showing mercy because they had stayed out of trouble since their arrests a year ago.

“You have all got convictions, but you are not hardened drug dealers. Hardened drug dealers would not behave the way you did.

“Only a complete idiot with a stash full of Class C in the boot goes up the A19 at 90mph, attracting the attention of the police.”

The three men were each given ten-month prison sentences which Judge Bourne-Arton suspended for the next two years.

Wallace, of Northgate, was put on drug rehabilitation for 12 months with supervision and told to do 100 hours unpaid work.

Foster, of Allerton Close, was also given supervision and 100 hours of community work, and put on a Thinking Skills course.

Richardson, of Durham Street, received an 18-week curfew from 9pm to 7am and a drug rehabilitation requirement.

His barrister, Ian Mullarkey, told the court that he had voluntarily sought counselling since his arrest in August last year.

Mr Mullarkey said: “He is frank enough to admit that he stood to derive some financial benefit from this.

“He accepts what he did was wrong and he should have found a more lawful way of providing for his young daughter.”

Paul Cleasby, for Wallace, said his partner had left him “until he sorts himself out and this matter is resolved”.

Estranged girlfriend Leanne Murphy was asked to give evidence, and said: “He’s finally realised he has to change.”

Jim Withyman, for Foster, said he had set up two businesses since his arrest, and had overcome his problems with drugs.

He said: “It gave him an opportunity to reassess his life and his wife and three children told him he needs to look at himself.”