A DRUG dealer snared in a dramatic police sting operation has been jailed for more than five years.

Mark Anthony Mattocks, 30, offered to sell heroin to an undercover police officer in York.

The plain clothes officer was on the streets as part of a drive to combat the crack cocaine and heroin trade in the city.

Mattocks was caught on camera four times doing a deal and later admitted selling 15 wraps of the drug a day to fund his own addiction.

The Honorary Recorder of York, Judge Paul Hoffman, said: "You are a prolific offender. You need to be kept out of the public's way for some time."

Mattocks, of Stanley Street, The Groves, York, pleaded guilty to four charges of supplying heroin and was jailed for five years, plus 217 days unserved of a previous sentence.

He had been released from prison part-way through a two-year sentence for burglaries.

David Garnett, prosecuting, said the undercover officer went to an area where he thought he may be approached by heroin dealers.

Mattocks discussed drugs with him and sold to him four times on four successive days. On each occasion, he handed over heroin in exchange for £10.

The officer asked if Mattocks could get him drugs other than heroin, but the dealer told him he did not have any and did not know where he could get them.

After his arrest, Mattocks told police that he was selling up to 15 wraps of heroin a day to fund his own habit.

But Mattock's barrister, Glenn Parsons, said his client was not on heroin when he was drug-dealing, though he had been in the past.

He had started selling heroin to meet the drug debts he had run up before he got the two-year jail term.

Mattocks was estranged from his family, but was hoping to sort out his life and put his crimes behind him.

Judge Hoffman said Mattocks had sold drugs for about ten days before he was stopped by the police.

Updated: 08:32 Wednesday, October 13, 2004