A PUSHER found with drugs worth almost £5,000 when police raided his home, today started a three-and-a-half-year jail term.

Burnley Crown Court heard how new dad Kevin Donaghey, 28, who was on £135 per fortnight benefits, had cocaine, ecstasy tablets and cannabis and told police he took two to three grammes of cocaine and 10 ecstasy tablets a day.

Donaghey was sent to prison after Judge Raymond Bennett said it had to be a custodial sentence.

The defendant, of Stoney Street, Burnley, had earlier admitted possessing cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis with intent to supply. Michael Lavery, prosecuting, said in January police searched the defendant's home and he said everything in the house belonged to him.

Officers found 326 ecstasy tablets, with a street value of £3,260, some in a safe at the property and some in a bedroom.

Three packets of cocaine -- a total of 29.41 grammes worth £1013.44 were also discovered in the safe -- and £74 worth of cannabis was found in a cardboard tube.

Mr Lavery said police seized a notebook with names and addresses from the kitchen and found electronic scales in a cupboard. Plastic wrappings were taken from a wheelie bin and a mobile telephone was discovered in a back bedroom.

The defendant claimed ownership of all the drugs found at his home. He was not prepared to say where they came from, but said they were for himself and his friends and he made no profit from peddling to friends.

Anthony Cross, defending, said Donaghey had a very bad record. He had come to live here from Northern Ireland and very quickly became addicted to cocaine. He began to sell to support his very heavy habit.

The defendant told police everything in his house was his as soon as they came through the door, while in 99 per cent of cases defendants tried to say property found in their home was not theirs.

He made full admissions when he was interviewed, but not to commercial supply. Mr Cross went on: "Of course there was commercial supply, but realistically, he was also selling to friends."

The barrister said sentence had been adjourned Donaghey so he could be present at the birth of his child. He had behaved himself since his arrest, there had been no repetition of such behaviour.

He was doing his best to provide for the child and was anxious to build a law-abiding life.