A BRADFORD woman on trial accused of packaging and posting MCAT as part of an international drugs supply plot told the jury she believed the white powder was plant food.

Helen Brookes had £23,000 worth of the Class B drug at her home in Buttermere Road, Undercliffe, when police raided it on March 6, 2013, Bradford Crown Court has heard.

A package addressed to her containing MCAT valued at £7,440 was intercepted by border control officers at Manchester Airport three months earlier.

Brookes, 51, and Derrick Smith, 59, of Keldregate, Huddersfield, deny conspiring to fraudulently evade the prohibition on MCAT and conspiring to supply it, between March 27, 2012, and March 23, 2013.

They are alleged to have been part of an operation, that included a man called Andre w Rogers, to import MCAT from China and post it in DVD cases to international customers.

Brookes yesterday broke down in tears in the witness box as she claimed Smith had lied to her when he involved her in his business because she was short of money.

"He told me they were samples of plant food," she said.

Asked by her barrister, Rodney Ferm: "If you had known that these were drugs, legal or illegal, what would you have done?"

Brookes, of good character, replied: "I'd have had nothing to do with them, or him."

She told the jury Smith had "dragged her into it."

Brookes said the white powder she weighed out in grams looked like salt.

She told the police in interview: "I have never been involved in drugs, never. I am from a respectable family."

Smith told the court in his defence that Andrew Rogers said his business dealt in legal highs.

He agreed he showed Brookes how to use a computer and delivered stock, empty DVD cases and Jiffy bags to her home.

She told him she was skint and he was helping her out, he said.

Smith said he wrote to Brookes after her arrest apologising for involving her.

Police found a draft letter in the bin at his home stating: "I never knew the chemicals were illegal. I would not have done that to you."

Smith said he believed he was part of a business to import legal highs, such as B2, Sunshine, Moonlight and Mad Cat.

He told the jury he was shocked when he learned he had been arrested for dealing MCAT.

Smith said Brookes was "entirely innocent" of any wrongdoing.

The trial continues.