A EX-CONVICT who tried to sell hard drugs to an undercover police officer is awaiting sentence.

Burnley Magistrates heard how Paul James Whitehead, 21, was arrested during the police swoop Operation Monaco in April .

Whitehead, of Kinross Street, Burnley, admitted offering to supply a Class A controlled drug.

He was committed for sentence to Preston Crown Court on a date to be fixed. The defendant must live at his home address and report to the police station regularly.

Margaret Duckworth, prosecuting, said the defendant made a call to an undercover police officer and waited outside a house on Harold Street, Burnley.

The officer reported that another man came out of the property and asked him if he wanted to buy some "brown."

He then showed the officer a cling film bag containing a brown substance.

Mrs Duckworth said Whitehead he had received a three months term of custody in 1998 for possessing heroin.

Mark Williams, defending, said there was no actual supply of drugs by the defendant but an offer.