A MAN has been jailed for more than six years after being caught with a stash of cocaine worth £15,000 while on bail for street dealing.

Scott Finlay pleaded guilty to three counts of possession of drugs with intent to supply and the production of cannabis following a police raid on his hotel room.

Swindon Crown Court heard that the 42-year-old, from Andover, was on bail when he was found to be in possession of a quantity of cannabis and £2,500 in cash after police in Amesbury stopped his car on Boscombe Road in the town last November.

An officer recalled seeing his vehicle leaving the Antrobus Arms Hotel, also in Amesbury, a number of times and it was discovered he had a room there.

Staff told police that he had been paying £250 a week for the room. They also confirmed that he had asked for it not to be cleaned and never went to breakfast.

On searching his room officers found more than £15,000 worth of cocaine and cannabis valued in excess of £1,500, as well as 200g of bicarb, used for cutting cocaine.

An expensive Omega watch was seized along with his phone, which he refused to give the PIN number to so it could be analysed.

Colin Meeke, prosecuting, told the court how the first raft of offences, for which he was on bail, took place in Marlborough last year when Finlay was operating out of friend's house and where he also got his landlord involved in selling hard drugs to addicts.

He said on Thursday, March 10, his landlord Gareth Bartlett, 27, was found in the street with drugs which led to his house on Maurice Way being searched.

Around three ounces of crack, worth £8,000, was found in Finlay's room along with a small hydroponics set-up for growing cannabis which could have yielded £2,100.

Following an examination of the phone that Bartlett was using it became clear from texts that his lodger had been using him to sell drugs on his behalf.

Nick Clough, defending Finlay, described how his client had worked at The Guardian for 20 years before being made redundant.

He claimed a mid-life crisis led to him turning to hard drugs and after running up debts he said he was told he could only pay them off by dealing.

Mr Clough said his client was only ever a 'runner' for those higher up and was not living a life of luxury on the back of his crime.

He told the court that the watch was a gift from his late father and he hoped to be able to avoid it being confiscated under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Sentencing him to a total of six years and four months in prison, Recorder Jason Taylor said: "You were not, in my judgement, as naive as is being suggested today."

He was also ordered to pay £4,850 in the next three months or face four months added to his sentence.

At an earlier hearing Bartlett, now of Cloatley Close, Royal Wootton Bassett, admitted possessing cocaine with intent so supply and allowing his premises to be used for the production of cannabis. He was handed a two-year jail term, suspended for 24 months, with 25 days rehabilitation activity requirement and 120 hours unpaid work.