A 22-year-old drug dealer has been warned he faces a minimum jail term of seven years if he is caught selling Class A drugs again.

Mohammed Atif Aslam was locked up for 18 months for drugs offences in 2011 and today he was sent to prison again after police officers found heroin and cash in a Seat car they had stopped on Thornton Road, Bradford, last October.

Aslam, of Girlington Road, Bradford, was jailed for 32 months after he admitted possessing heroin and cocaine with intent to supply and his driver Mohammed Zaman, 20, of Haslingden Road, Heaton, Bradford, was sent to a young offenders institution for 28 months.

Zaman, who had no previous convictions, admitted the same street dealing offences as his co-accused and Judge Mark Savill warned Aslam that a third drug dealing offence would mean he faced a very severe minimum sentence under the "three strikes" legislation.

Prosecutor David Lampitt said after officers stopped the Seat car in the middle of the afternoon Aslam was found to be in possession of 20 packages of heroin with a street value of just over £100.

Aslam also had £325 in cash on him and his mobile phone was seized.

Mr Lampitt said further searches were carried out at Zaman's home and a flat linked to him.

In Zaman's bedroom officers found a carrier bag with Aslam's fingerprint on it which contained various quantities of heroin and cocaine and when the flat in Great Horton Road was searched a further bag containing heroin was discovered.

Mr Lampitt said in total the police recovered heroin and cocaine worth more than £8,700 on the streets.

Both defendants said they had been involved in drug dealing to pay off debts and that "a third party" was controlling them.

"Some the text messages on the phone seemed to support what they were saying," conceded Mr Lampitt.

Solicitor advocate Mark Brookes, for Aslam, conceded that his client was back in court for a second similar offence in a relatively short period of time.

Mr Brookes said Aslam was being put under pressure by others to pay off a debt which had increased from £1,500 to £2,000.

Zaman's lawyer Stephen Uttley urged Judge Savill to consider a suspended sentence in his case due to his lack of previous convictions.

"I submit he is worth taking a chance on," said Mr Uttley.

"If he comes back he can expect no mercy and the slam of the prison door, but I ask you to give him that chance today."

But Judge Savill said the amount of drugs involved was just shy of £9000 and it could not be said that the defendants had been in possession of just one or two wraps.