A JUDGE has hit out at a "significant" drug problem which is afflicting Clitheroe.

Recorder Roderick Carus QC spoke out as he jailed a 23-year-old man for drug offences - as a warning to others.

He said: "Clitheroe is well known for having a significant drug problem.

"We are satisfied that it is our public duty to make an example of you to deter others."

Preston Crown Court was told that police kept observations on Clitheroe railway station and saw Carl Jeffries on several occasions get off the Manchester train and give a package to a motorcyclist.

The court was told that the collector of the drugs was Jeffries' girlfriend.

Jeffries, 33, of St Annes Square, Low Moor, Clitheroe, had been committed for sentence by Blackburn magistrates for possession and supply of heroin.

Mohammed Nawaz, defending, said Jeffries had pleaded guilty, but did not believe what he was doing was supply and he had not committed the offence for financial gain.

Both Jeffries and his girlfriend were heroin users but he did not want her to come into contact with people he was buying from. Both were now on methadone. Jeffries was jailed for four months.

The judge told him: "It was supply in a technical sense. Anybody who supports the heroin trade supports a system which brings misery to many people's lives."

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