A NIGHTCLUB bouncer has been cleared of having drugs for himself hidden in his security jacket.

Thomas Woods, 24, handed over amphetamine to a police sergeant after he was arrested for something else in the early hours at Utopia, Blackburn, a Burnley Crown Court jury had been told.

The prosecution claimed Woods concealed the "speed" for his own use, but Woods said he had taken it off a drunken clubber and had forgotten about it.

He told the jury: "I have seen everything that drugs can do. I have got personal friends who have got messed up with them. They don't interest me."

Woods, of Lyndhurst Road, Burnley, denied possessing amphetamine last April.

Woods said on the night in question the club was short staffed.

Some time after 2am, he found a youth, covered in vomit, in a toilet cubicle. He had a bag of white powder and Woods told him to hand it over.

He told the youth he could hand the drug back, but only in front of police, and officers would then deal with him, or the amphetamine could be confiscated and given to management who would dispose of the drugs. The teenager took the option to leave the club and he escorted him out.

Woods said he put the amphetamine in his security jacket pocket and took the youth to the front door.

He came back in and was taking his jacket off when he heard the "Mick Jordan" call - the code a fight was taking place. He handed in his jacket at the cloakroom.

Questioned by his counsel, Andrew Lawson, Woods said when police arrived he asked if he could pick his jacket up. At the station, he was asked to empty his pockets.

He said: "When I put my hand in and felt the amphetamine, I remembered that I had it."

Cross-examined by Joe Boyd, Woods said he had not told the head doorman about the drugs because he did not remember he had them.

Mr Boyd suggested Woods' claims were a "smoke screen" to hide the fact he had the drugs for his own use and he had ample opportunity to tell the head doorman.

Woods said he had been a doorman for about five years and had seen the effects of drugs. He said: "They don't interest me."

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