TWO criminals hatched a plot to lead the police to planted firearms and drugs in a bid to reduce the long prison sentences they were set to receive, a jury at Bradford Crown Court heard.

Convicted Bradford class A drug dealers, Asad Javed and Imran Khan, devised the plan together while both were in Leeds Prison, prosecutor Jonathan Sharp said yesterday.

It is alleged they enlisted the help of people on the outside of the prison, including Javed's brothers, Amer Javed, 34, and Saqib Javed, 38, both of Ashfield Drive, Frizinghall, Bradford.

Both are on trial denying conspiracy to pervert the course of public justice.

Khan and Asad Javed had pleaded guilty to the charge, Mr Sharp told the jury yesterday.

He said they decided to reduce the "very long sentences" they expected to receive by pointing out to the police where drugs and firearms were hidden.

"The police would recover the guns and the drugs and Asad Javed and Imran Khan would get the credit for providing useful information, and in return, it was planned, their sentences would be substantially reduced," Mr Sharp said.

But, he told the jury, it was all a "sham" and a "charade" because they plotted to have the illegal items planted in pre-arranged places by other people, including the defendants.

The Crown's case was that Amer Javed and Saqib Javed agreed to join in with the plan and played a part in putting it into action.

But, Mr Sharp alleged, the conspirators mistrusted one another and Amer Javed was "an unreliable drunk" who repeatedly failed to do what he was told.

"The defendants fell out amongst themselves and the end result was that when Khan went out with the police all that had been planted for him to find was a relatively small quantity of extremely weak heroin and an imitation Walther pistol," Mr Sharp said.

"When Javed went out, he could find nothing at all, the items that had been planted for him had been removed.

"But none of that detracts from the guilt of these defendants. They committed the crime alleged against them when they agreed to take part in the plot."

The court heard that the plot was fully formed by the end of September last year.

Khan was to be taken out by the police on October 7 and it was planned that he would lead them to a concealed revolver.

But all that was recovered from a patch of waste ground in Keighley was an old Roses chocolates tin containing 278 grammes of low purity heroin and the imitation gun in an old ice cream container.

The jury heard that the police recovered another Roses tin and a roll of black masking tape, of the same type used to seal the containers, from the home of Khan's girlfriend, Karen Dejong.

Asad Javed was set to go out with the police on November 18, Mr Sharp said, to lead them to the concealed revolver and some drugs.

But disaster struck when Amer Javed rang him to say the hidden items had gone.

Lawyers for the defendants told the jury they were playing along with their brother, Asad Javed, and had no real intention of helping him to carry out his plan.

The trial continues.