A HEROIN dealer persuaded a court to give him a chance after police stopped him in Clifton with £900-worth of street deals in his pocket.

It was the second time Geoffrey Alan Anderson, 34, had been caught dealing in the drug. In 1997, he was jailed for 30 months.

But when he appeared before York Crown Court, Recorder Andrew Lees QC gave him a community order with two years’ supervision and two years’ drug rehabilitation. “I am going to take a chance on him,” the judge said. Earlier, he had said Anderson was dealing in the drug commercially to fund his own habit.

Anderson, no fixed address, and formerly of St Olave’s Road, Clifton, pleaded guilty to possessing 15.5g of heroin with intent to supply it to others. Alan Mitcheson, prosecuting, said police stopped Anderson in St Olave’s Road and searched him. In his pocket they found 90 plastic bags containing heroin weighing together 15.4g.

They also found another wrap in his wallet and a drug debtor list, scales and other drug paraphernalia in his home.

The heroin was worth £350 wholesale or £900 sold on the streets.

For Anderson, Taryn Turner said he was a long-term heavy heroin user who was not a sophisticated dealer. In the run-up to his arrest, he had had an argument with his brother and as a result found himself homeless. That had led to him going back to old drug habits. But there was a chance he could get a bed at the York Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders which would help him stay off drugs. The judge warned Anderson that if he did not complete the drug rehabilitation or the supervision, he would be brought back to court and would face two- and-a-half years in jail.