A WOMAN was today warned she faces jail, after a jury convicted her of selling heroin in a York street.

Michelle Joanne Sharpe had claimed she was buying, not dealing, the heroin after she was spotted by a policewoman in Piccadilly, York, in May last year.

PC Joanne Wragg had told York Crown Court she saw Sharpe exchange something with a male cyclist and put it in her back pocket.

Prosecutor David Brooke said that, as police closed in moments later, Sharpe threw away eight wraps of heroin.

She was later found to have £640 on her.

Sharpe, 34, formerly of George Street, Walmgate, told the court she was a heavy heroin user and had been buying an eighth of an ounce for personal use. She had the cash on her as she feared it would be stolen if she left it in the flat.

But the jury of four men and seven women did not believe her story and returned today's guilty verdict.

Sharpe's barrister, Nicholas Barker, asked Judge Jim Spencer QC to consider imposing a suspended sentence because of "highly unique" mitigating circumstances

He said: "Seven years ago the defendant was involved in the trial of her father who was convicted of a gruesome murder committed when she was a child.

"Her father kept a young girl prisoner in a cell for two years and abused her while caring for the defendant. It is as a consequence of this she lost the care of her children and lost control of her life."

He also said Sharpe acted as a carer for her elderly mother in Blackpool.

But Judge Spencer refused to commit himself to a suspended sentence. "Whether this mitigates the sentence is a matter for me," he said.

He told Sharpe: "You have been convicted of a very serious offence, taking part in this evil trade, on the clearest evidence if I may say. The likely sentence is I will be sending you to prison, you know that as well as I do."

Sharpe was granted conditional bail while pre-sentence reports were prepared. She is due to be sentenced on September 1.

Updated: 14:36 Wednesday, July 09, 2003