A PLASTERER caught with a £6,000 drugs stash in his flat has been jailed for four years.

Daniel Higginson had £5,500 worth of cocaine at the address in Alexandra Road, Shipley, along with a drugs press and £600 worth of cannabis, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Higginson, 25, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to supply Class A and Class B drugs on October 18 last year and possession of money as criminal property.

A trial of the issue was held to determine if he intended to sell skunk cannabis from the outset or was doing it to pay off a drug debt, and if he was warehousing the cocaine or part of the supply chain.

Prosecutor Michael Smith said police searching the flat seized the 137 gram block of cocaine, £200 of skunk cannabis and a bowl containing £400 of cannabis bush.

Traces of cocaine were found in a motorcycle boot.

Scales, the drug press and plastic bags were also recovered.

Almost £700 was seized, from Higginson’s wallet and a bedside table.

Mr Smith said calls from customers wanting drugs delivered to Ilkley and Ben Rhydding were found on Higginson’s phone.

He told the police he ran up a debt to his cannabis dealer and was selling skunk cannabis and looking after the cocaine to pay it off.

He maintained that the drug press, bags and scales were not his but argued that his flat was being used by others to cut and pack cocaine.

Higginson told the court he had convictions for simple possession of cannabis but no criminal record for supplying drugs.

He was packed up to move out of the flat when the police carried out a raid on it.

Higginson said he had a £350 a month cannabis habit at the time, smoking it up to five times a day.

He said he was not a cocaine user and maintained that the block of Class A drug was not his.

Judge Neil Davey found against Higginson, ruling that he had been dealing cannabis from the outset.

The judge concluded Higginson was voluntarily trafficking the cocaine.

But he accepted that he was being pressured over a drug debt and that he had been threatened.

Higginson’s barrister, Gerald Hendron, told the court that his client had now stopped taking cannabis.

He ran a tyre business and was studying to be an electrical engineer, the court was told during the case.