TWO heroin dealers involved in supplying junkies in East Lancashire failed in a bid to have their convictions overturned.

Joseph Cromer, 31, and Azizul Wahab, 33, supplied heroin to dealers who ran "shops" for junkies in a "large scale sophisticated operation" between 1996 and 1998.

Cromer, of Clee Road, Cleethorpes, was sentenced to nine years in prison at Preston Crown Court, on November 24 2000 after he was convicted of conspiracy to supply heroin. Wahab, of Clive Street, Accrington, got 12 years for that offence and conspiring to hide the profits of drug trafficking.

They both appealed against their convictions. Wahab claimed that a confession to police was wrongly obtained and shouldn't have been put before the jury. Cromer said that evidence of his opulent lifestyle should also have been ruled out.

But Lord Justice Judge, sitting at London's Criminal Appeal Court, yesterday dismissed both the appeals. He said both men were involved in supplying two dealerships operated from Leeds Road, and Russell Street, Burnley, to which police observed over 400 visitors during two weeks in 1998.

Nigel Shepherd, for Wahab, argued he had been misled into making a partial confession.

And Anthony Watson, for Cromer, claimed the jury should not have been allowed to hear "lifestyle evidence" of his handling large sums of cash and living lavishly.

But Lord Justice Judge said Wahab was an intelligent man who "knew precisely what he was doing when he made his confession."

Of Cromer, he said the trial judge had properly directed the jury concerning the defendant's lifestyle.