TWO "bouncers" at a York crack house were today behind bars after being snared in a secret police sting.

Addicts Wayne Ronald Coxon and Rebecca Louise Turner acted as "doorkeepers" to the drugs den in Newborough Street, York Crown Court heard.

While under police observation their home attracted more than 150 visitors in only one week.

Simon Myers, prosecuting, told the court that most were involved in the supply of crack cocaine.

Judge Paul Hoffman, Honorary Recorder of York, played down the defendants' claims that they were forced into the crime by a co-defendant. The court heard that Ainsley Washington Rease, 41, had admitted masterminding crack deals in the surveillance period.

Jailing the two York defendants, Judge Hoffman told them: "This was under your control - you were doorkeepers."

He said: "Every deal on a large scale needs a base in which to operate.

"Your house was that base and on two occasions you were acting as doorkeeper, letting in customers, in effect facilitating dealing by Rease in Class A drugs."

Mr Myers said drugs police acting on a tip launched a covert operation, involving spy cameras, in Newborough Street between July 24 and August 1 last year.

He said the defendants were present on the afternoon of July 24 when at least eight people went to the property "for a matter of minutes". On July 30 they oversaw about 30 short calls before the property was raided.

Anne Munday, mitigating, said her clients admitted helping Rease on two days, but she questioned the scale of visitors outlined by the prosecution.

She said Rease moved into the property while Coxon was in jail. But when he refused to move out "there was little Turner could do" and Miss Munday said police saw the pair knocking on their own door, asking Rease for entry.

But Mr Myers said there was nothing to suggest the pair were acting under pressure.

Coxon, 23, of Ladymill Garth, Clifton, was jailed for a total of three-and-a-half years. This term included an extra six months for breaking a drug order imposed for a string of shoplifting offences.

Turner, 22, of Burton Stone Lane, York, was jailed for two years and three months in total. Her sentence was extended for breaching a combination order imposed for shoplifting.

The defendants - both on methadone to combat drug addictions - admitted two charges of being concerned in the supply of crack cocaine, on two days between July 23 and August 1.

Rease, of no fixed abode, was arrested after the York police sting. He is in custody awaiting trial at Leeds Crown Court in connection with crack house raids in West Yorkshire.

Updated: 10:44 Tuesday, July 27, 2004