A SMALL-TIME drug dealer peddled "death and destruction" on Bradford's streets to raise money for medicine for his sick young daughter, a court heard.

Mohammed Asif, 42, wept in the dock at Bradford Crown Court today as he was jailed for 15 months for supplying heroin and crack cocaine.

Even as Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC was sentencing him, an urgent note was passed to barrister Elyas Patel saying the little girl was critically ill and had been rushed to hospital.

Asif, of Underwood House, North Wing, Bradford, admitted supplying crack cocaine on May 21 last year and supplying both heroin and crack cocaine the following day.

Prosecutor Paul Nicholson said Asif was working for a drug dealer now serving a sentence of more than five years imprisonment.

Asif was driving for the "Saj" mobile supply line and the police found 32 wraps of Class A drugs dropped next to his Peugeot car.

Mr Patel said Asif's wife and daughter were in Pakistan and the little girl was on medication for a hole in her heart.

Asif was living hand to mouth and foolishly got involved with the drugs operation to pay for her treatment.

"He was very much compelled by a desperate set of circumstances to drive around a more sophisticated drug dealer. He got involved purely to keep that medication flowing," Mr Patel told the court.

"He is a broken man, with a broken heart, and this will literally break his daughter's heart.

"If she doesn't pull through, he will blame himself until his dying day."

Judge Durham Hall told Asif he sympathised with the little girl's plight but he had to go to jail.

"You knew the risks and stupidly assisted very serious criminals to supply Class A drugs," he said.

"There can be no justification for peddling death and destruction on the streets of this, or any other, city.

"I cannot allow compassion to override my public duty."