A TWICE-CONVICTED drug dealer is starting his latest prison sentence after being caught "high up the chain" in a plot to sell heroin across the region.

Cafe owner Paul Terry and his "patsy" Peter Williams were arrested after a police surveillance operation in Middlesbrough earlier this year.

Terry, 39 - jailed for ten years in 2002 for a similar offence - was said to have bullied "immature and naive" Williams, 33, into delivering packages of heroin.

Williams was caught with £35,000 worth of the drugs when police swooped on a car he was driving on March 11 - a Vauxhall Vectra owned by Terry.

When officers later raided Terry's home, he was desperately trying to crush a mobile phone sim card and get rid of his handset, Teesside Crown Court heard.

The court was told he was one of eight people jailed nearly a decade ago when police busted a region-wide heroin ring operating from Teesside.

On that occasion - when drugs worth £104,000 were seized - Terry used his secondhand car business as a front for his distribution network.

His barrister, Brian Russell, admitted his position was made worse by his previous conviction, but insisted Terry was not the head of the latest plot.

He said his client - as well as Williams - had tried to give police evidence to prosecute the Mr Big, but the charges have been dropped.

Paul Cleasby, for Williams, said he had been preyed upon and threatened by people more cunning and sophisticated than the former car cleaner.

He described Williams as "a very naive and timid individual" and revealed he had also been bullied while on remand in Holme House Prison.

Terry, of Addington Drive, and Williams, of Cranmore Road, Middlesbrough, admitted conspiracy to supply Class A drugs between January and March.

The judge, Recorder Duncan Smith, jailed him for six years, and imposed a sentence of 18 months on Williams, who has no previous convictions.

Detective Constable Andy Peacock, of Middlesbrough drugs unit, said: "Terry and Williams have now been stopped from supplying drugs that were destined for our streets and their sentences show that drugs activity will not be tolerated."