A DEALER who was supplying amphetamine was caught after police found a haul of the drug in his freezer, a court heard.

Paul Farran, 38, had 22 grams of amphetamine, worth about £200 on the streets, as well as another gram in his bedroom.

When police examined his mobile phone they found three weeks' worth of messages asking for drugs between £10 and £30 to be "laid on", Burnley Crown Court heard.

A judge said the defendant was "peddling quite actively" but had no need to do it as he was on £130 a week benefits.

Farran, of Parkinson Street, Burnley, admitted supplying amphetamine between the end of last October and early November.

He asked for an offence of possession of the drug to be considered.

The defendant was jailed for 18 months.

Recorder Roderick Carus, QC, told him the courts had tried suspended and community sentences in the hope he would reform himself, but he had not done it and still wasn't.

He said Farran and people like him spread despair and misery.

John Woodward, for Farran, said he had a chronic addiction to amphetamine but did not feel he could come off it without help.

The barrister said: "He means business when he says he will do everything he can to assist himself in coming off drugs.

"He accepts he could go to custody today and he would have no complaint."